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THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


THE    LIFE    OF    RUFUS    CHOATE. 


THE    LIFE 


EUFUS    CHOATE. 


BY 
SAMUEL   OILMAN   BROWN, 

PRESIDENT  OF   HAMILTON    COLLEGE. 


'Ev  (J.vprov  K\aSl 


THIRD    EDITION. 


BOSTON: 
LITTLE,  BROWN,  AND    COMPANY. 

1879. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1878,  by 

LITTLE,    SHOWN,    AND    COMPANY, 

In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  District  of  Massachusetts. 


CAMBRIDGE  : 
PRESS  OF  JOHN  WILSON  AND  SON. 


E 


TO    THE    MEMORY 

OF 

LEMUEL    SHAW,    LL.D., 

FOR     THIRTY     YEARS     CHIEF     JUSTICE     OF     THE     SUPREME     COURT     OF 
MASSACHUSETTS, 

THIS   THIRD   EDITION  OF   THE   LIFE   OF   RUFUS   CHOATE 
IS   RESPECTFULLY   INSCRIBED. 


1312354 


PREFACE 


THIRD  EDITION  OF  THE  LIFE. 


IT  is  now  more  than  nineteen  years  since  the  death 
of  Mr.  Choate,  but  the  interest  in  the  man  as  scholar, 
advocate,  master  of  eloquence,  statesman,  and  patriot, 
seems  hardly  to  have  diminished :  seems,  indeed,  of 
late,  to  have  revived  and  spread.  His  genius  has 
formed  the  subject  of  lectures  and  critical  essays  to 
many  audiences,  and  in  publications  widely  separated. 
It  would  be  impossible  to  refer  to  these  in  detail,  but 
it  may  be  proper  to  mention  a  lecture  by  James  T. 
Fields,  Esq.,  of  Boston  ;  a  thoughtful  and  discrimi- 
nating article  in  "  The  Western,"  — a  magazine  pub- 
lished in  St.  Louis ;  a  critical  essay  in  "  Harper's 
Monthly  "  (republished,  with  additions,  in  the  "  Half 
Hour  Series  "),  by  Edwin  P.  Whipple,  Esq.  ;  two 
articles  published  in  the  "  Albany  Law  Journal,"  in 
1876,  by  Irving  Browne,  Esq. ;  and,  especially,  a 
series  of  papers  in  the  "  Albany  Law  Journal,"  ex- 
tending through  many  months  of  the  years  1877  and 


viii  PREFACE   TO   THE   THIRD   EDITION. 

1878,  by  his  Honor  Judge  Neilson,  of  the  City  Court, 
Brooklyn.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  this  last-named 
series,  containing  reminiscences  gathered  with  much 
care  from  gentlemen  in  almost  all  departments  of  pro- 
fessional and  public  life,  —  the  earlier  and  the  later 
friends  of  Mr.  Choate,  —  will  be  published  in  a  form 
easily  accessible  to  the  many  who  would  delight  to 
read  them. 

The  second  edition  of  the  Life  of  Mr.  Choate  has 
for  some  time  been  nearly  out  of  print,  and  is  now 
entirely  so.  The  present  edition,  somewhat  en- 
larged from  the  former  ones,  will,  I  hope,  meet  the 
wishes  of  those  who  desire  to  possess  some  authentic 
record  of  a  great  lawyer  and  advocate,  whose  sweet- 
ness of  temper,  and  unselfish  love  of  all  things  great 
and  good,  were  almost  as  remarkable  as  the  acknowl- 
edged splendor  of  his  genius. 

S.  G.  B. 

HAMILTON  COLLEGE, 
CLINTON,  N.  Y.,  Dec.  14, 1878. 


PKEFACE 


SECOND   EDITION  OF  THE   LIFE. 


THE  first  edition  of  the  Works  of  Mr.  Choate,  with 
the  Memoir  of  his  Life,  was  early  disposed  of,  and  for 
many  years  it  has  been  almost  impossible  to  obtain  a 
copy.  In  the  mean  time  the  wish  has  been  frequently 
expressed  that  the  Life  might  be  republished  by  itself. 
In  accordance  with  this  desire,  the  present  edition 
has  been  prepared.  Although  in  the  main  unchanged, 
it  will  be  found  to  contain  some  additions  in  the 
form  of  letters,  reminiscences,  and  selections  from  the 
writings  of  Mr.  Choate. 

While  I  cannot  fail  gratefully  to  recognize  the 
kindness  with  which  the  work,  as  originally  pub- 
lished, was  received,  especially  by  those  most  compe- 
tent to  judge,  —  the  members  of  the  Massachusetts  Bar, 
and  those  who  knew  Mr.  Choate  most  familiarly,  — 
yet  I  cannot  but  feel  more  than  ever  how  inadequate 
is  any  delineation  to  present  a  complete  picture  of 
that  subtle,  versatile,  and  exuberant  mind,  "  to  dis- 


X  PREFACE    TO   THE    SECOND   EDITION. 

play  with  psychological  exactness  "  (if  I  may  use  his 
own  words)  "  the  traits  of  his  nature,"  to  unveil  "  the 
secrets  —  the  marvellous  secrets  —  and  sources  of 
that  vast  power  which  we  shall  see  no  more  in  action, 
nor  aught  in  any  degree  resembling  it  among  men." 

We  shall  not  fail,  however,  I  trust,  to  learn  some 
lessons  of  fidelity,  and  unsparing  diligence,  and  un- 
remitting labor,  for  which  no  genius  can  prove  a 
substitute,  as  well  as  those  other  lessons  of  high  pur- 
pose, and  broad  patriotism,  which  informed  his  life, 
and  which  the  new  condition  of  the  Republic  demands 
of  us  even  more  strenuously  than  did  the  old. 

S.  G.  B. 

HAMILTON  COLLEGE, 
CLINTON,  N.  Y.,  Dec.  22,  1869. 


PREFACE 


TO   THE 


FIRST  EDITION  OF  THE  LIFE  AND  WORKS. 


WHEN  first  requested  to  prepare  a  sketch  of  the  life 
of  Mr.  CHOATE,  I  was  not  ignorant  of  the  difficulty  of 
writing  it  so  as  to  present  a  fair  and  complete  portrait- 
ure, —  the  traits  of  his  character  were  so  peculiar,  its 
lights  and  shades  so  delicate,  various,  and  evanescent. 
The  difficulty  has  not  grown  less  as  I  have  proceeded 
with  the  work,  and  no  one,  I  think,  can  be  so  well 
aware  as  I  am,  of  its  insufficiency. 

It  may  seem  singular  that  none  of  Mr.  Choate's  ad- 
dresses to  a  jury  are  included  in  this  collection  of  his 
speeches,  —  that  the  department  of  eloquence  in  which 
perhaps  he  gained  his  greatest  fame  should  here  be 
unrepresented.  In  this  disappointment,  those  by 
whom  this  selection  has  been  made  certainly  share. 
It  was  not  until  the  very  last,  and  after  making  a 
careful  examination  of  everjr  accessible  report  of  his 
legal  arguments,  that  they  reluctantly  came  to  the 
conclusion  that  no  one  remained  which,  considering 
the  nature  of  the  subject,  or  of  the  report  itself,  would 
do  justice  to  the  advocate,  or  very  much  gratify  the 
reader. 


Xii  PREFACE   TO   THE   FIRST    EDITION. 

As  to  Mr.  Choate's  political  sentiments  and  action 
during  the  later  years  of  his  life,  it  did  not  seem 
necessary  to  do  more  than  to  give  his  opinions  as  they 
were  honestly  formed  and  frankly  expressed.  The 
time  has  not  yet  come  for  treating  fully  and  with 
entire  fairness  the  questions  of  those  days.  One 
still  "  walks  on  ashes  thinly  covering  fires." 

A  word  should  perhaps  be  said  with  reference  to 
the  fragments  of  translations  from  Thucydides  and 
Tacitus,  which  close  these  volumes.  They  were  pre- 
pared solely  as  a  private  exercise  and  for  a  personal 
pleasure  and  advantage.  They  were  never  revised, 
and  are  given  precisely  as  found  on  loose  scraps  of 
paper,  after  Mr.  Choate's  decease.  But  they  have 
struck  me,  as  well  as  others  upon  whose  better  judg- 
ment I  have  relied,  as  affording  examples  of  felicitous 
and  full  rendering  of  difficult  authors,  and  as  indicat- 
ing something  of  the  voluntary  labors  and  scholarly 
discipline  of  an  overtasked  lawyer,  who,  amidst  the 
unceasing  and  wearisome  calls  of  an  exacting  pro- 
fession, never  forgot  his  early  love  of  letters. 

No  one  unacquainted  with  Mr.  Choate's  hand- 
writing can  understand  the  difficulty  of  preparing  his 
manuscripts  for  the  press.  For  performing  so  well 
this  very  perplexing  labor,  the  public  are  chiefly 
indebted  to  RTJFUS  CHOATE,  Jr.,  and  EDWARD  ELLER- 
TON  PRATT,  Esqs. 

With  a  singular  and  almost  unaccountable  indiffer- 
ence to  fame,  Mr.  Choate  took  no  pains  to  preserve  his 
speeches.  The  manuscript  of  the  lecture,  —  written 
at  first  with  the  most  rapid  pen,  with  abbreviations, 
erasures,  and  interlineations,  —  had  no  sooner  fulfilled 
its  temporary  purpose,  than  it  was  thrust  among  waste 


PREFACE   TO   THE  FIRST  EDITION.  xiii 

papers,  and  forgotten.  He  had  not  the  time,  or  could 
not  bring  himself  to  take  the  trouble  to  recall  his  lost 
orations  or  legal  arguments.  His  lecture  on  the  Ro- 
mance of  the  Sea,  one  of  "the  most  beautiful  and 
popular  of  his  lectures,  was  lost  or  stolen  in  New 
York.  He  was  solicited  to  rewrite  it,  and  could 
doubtless,  at  any  time  for  years  afterward,  have  re- 
produced the  whole  — 

"  apparell'd  in  more  precious  habit, 

More  moving-delicate,  and  full  of  life," 

than  at  first,  but  other  matters  seemed  to  him  of  more 
importance,  and  the  half  promise  with  which  he  be- 
guiled his  friends  was  never  fulfilled. 

When  urged,  as  he  frequently  was,  to  prepare  a 
volume  of  speeches  for  the  press,  he  usually  quieted 
the  solicitor  by  seeming  to  accede  to  his  request,  or 
evaded  him  by  some  rare  bit  of  pleasantry. 

It  is  a  matter  of  congratulation,  then,  that  so  much 
has  been  rescued  from  irretrievable  loss.  It  has  even 
been  found  necessary,  in  order  not  to  overcrowd  the 
volumes,  to  omit  many  lectures  and  speeches,  which 
all  who  heard  them  would  doubtless  be  glad  to  possess 
in  a  permanent  form.  Among  these  are  several  con- 
gressional and  political  speeches,  his  speech  in  the 
Massachusetts  Convention  on  The  Basis  of  Represen- 
tation, and  his  lectures  on  The  Influence  of  Great 
Cities,  on  The  Mercantile  Profession,  on  Macaulay, 
on  Rogers,  on  Jefferson,  Hamilton,  and  Burr,  and  an 
earlier  lecture  on  Poland. 

The  engraving  which  accompanies  this  volume, 
from  a  photograph  by  Messrs.  SOUTHWORTH  & 
HAWES,  is  considered  the  best  likeness  which  exists 
of  Mr.  Choate  in  repose.  A  very  striking  portrait  by 


xiv  PREFACE   TO   THE  FIRST  EDITION. 

Mr.  AMES,  —  the  original  of  which  is  in  Dartmouth 
College,  —  gives  the  orator  in  action.  Besides  these, 
Mr.  BRACKETT  has  moulded  a  spirited  head  in  plaster, 
and  Mr.  THOMAS  BALL  has  sculptured  one  in  marble, 
which  for  dignity,  force,  and  truthfulness,  can  hardly 
be  surpassed. 

While  I  have  received  aid  from  many  sources,  which 
I  should  be  glad  particularly  to  designate,  I  cannot 
help  acknowledging  my  special  obligation  to  the  Mem- 
bers of  the  Bar,  especially  of  Suffolk  and  o£  Essex, 
many  of  whom  I  have  had  occasion  to  consult,  and 
from  all  have  received  every  assistance  possible  with- 
out reserve  or  hesitation.  I  am  also  much  indebted 
to  the  courtesy  of  Mr.  EVERETT  for  kindly  placing  at 
my  disposal  books  and  manuscripts  not  easily  acces- 
sible elsewhere,  which  were  indispensable  in  preparing 
the  sketch  of  Mr.  Choate's  life  in  Congress  ;  and  to 
EDWARD  G.  PARKER,  Esq.,  for  a  free  use  of  materials 
which  he  had  collected  in  preparing  his  "  Reminis- 
cences." 

The  publication  of  these  volumes,  though  ready  for 
the  press  many  months  since,  has  been  delayed  by 
causes  which  will  occur  to  every  one.  In  the  great 
peril  of  the  Republic,  what  else  could  be  thought 
of?  What  eloquence  be  heard  but  that  of  the  civil 
war?  But  the  counsels  of  the  wise  will  acquire  a 
deeper  meaning,  and  the  eloquence  of  patriotism  be 
listened  to  with  a  readier  acquiescence,  when  from  the 
present  tumult  and  strife  we  shall  emerge  upon  an- 
other era  "  bright  and  tranquil." 

S.  G.  B. 

HANOVER,  N.  H.,  October  13, 1862. 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 
CHAPTER  I.  — 1799-1830 1 

Birth  —  Ancestry  —  Boyhood  —  Account  by  his  Brother  — 
Studies  —  Characteristics  —  Enters  College  —  Bank  —  Testi- 
mony of  Classmates  —  Dartmouth  College  Case  —  Its  Influ- 
ence on  his  Choice  of  a  Profession  —  Extract  from  Judge 
Perley's  Eulogy  — Tutor  at  Dartmouth  —  Letter  from  Dr. 
Sewall  —  Enters  Law  School  in  Cambridge  —  Goes  to  Wash- 
ington and  studies  with  Mr.  Wirt  —  Death  of  his  brother 
Washington  —  Returns  to  Essex  —  Admission  to  the  Bar  — 
Testimony  of  Mr.  Wirt  —  Opens  an  Office  in  South  Danvers 

—  Letter  to  James  Marsh  —  Marriage — Success  —  Fidelity 
to  Clients  —  Letter  from  Judge  Shaw  —  Testimony  of  Hon. 
Asahel  Huntington. 

CHAPTER    II.  — 1830-1840 41 

Removal  to  Salem  —  The  Essex  Bar  —  Successes  —  Appear- 
ance—  Counsel  in  the  Knapp  Case  —  Studies  —  Letter  to 
President  Marsh  —  Elected  to  Congress  —  Commonplace  Book 

—  Letter  to  President  Marsh  —  Enters  Congress  —  Speeches 
on  Revolutionary  Pensions,  and  on  the  Tariff  —  Letter  to  Dr. 
Andrew  Nichols  —  Letters  to  Professor  George  Bush  —  The 
Second  Session  —  Georgia,  and  the  Missionaries  to  the  Indi- 
ans—  Letter  to  Professor  Bush  —  Re-elected  to  Congress  — 
Speech  on  the  Removal  of  the  Deposits  —  Resigns  his  Seat 

—  Removes  to  Boston  —  Lecture  on  the  "  Waverley  Novels," 
and  on  "  The  Romance  of  the  Sea  "  —  Death  of  his  Youngest 
Child. 


xvi  CONTENTS. 

PAGK 
CHAPTER    III.  — 1841-1843 71 

Professional  Advancement  —  Letters  to  Richard   S.  Storrs,  Jr. 

—  Chosen  Senator  in  place  of  Mr.  Webster  —  Death  of  Gen- 
eral Harrison —  Eulogy  in  Faneuil  Hall  —  Extra  Session  of 
Congress  —  Speech  on  the  M'Leod  Case  —  The  Fiscal  Bank 
Bill  —  Collision  with  Mr.  Clay  —  Nomination  of  Mr.  Everett 
as  Minister  to  England  —  Letter  to  Mr.  Sumner  —  Letters 
to   his  Son  —  The  next  Session  —  Speech  on  providing  fur- 
ther Remedial  Justice  in  the  United  States  Courts  —  Letters 
to  Mr.  Sumner  —  The  North  Eastern  Boundary  Question  — 
Journal. 

CHAPTER    IV.  — 1843-1844   .    ,;„..    .   ,.  f?,    .     .  106 

Address  before  the  New  England  Society  of  New  York  — 
Letter  from  Mr.  Van  Cott — Letter  to  Professor  Bush  — 
Letters  to  Charles  Sumner  —  Letter  to  his  Daughters  — 
Speech  on  Oregon  in  reply  to  Mr.  Buchanan  —  Recollections 
of  Alexander  H.  Stephens — First  Speech  on  the  Tariff  — 
Second  Speech  in  reply  to  Mr.  M'Duffie  —  Journal. 

CHAPTER   V.  — 1844-1845 141 

Political  Excitement —  Speaks  for  Mr.  Clay  —  Meeting  of  Con- 
gress—  Diary — Annexation  of  Texas — Admission  of  Iowa 
and  Florida  —  Establishment  of  the  Smithsonian  Institution  — 
Library  Plan  —  Letters  to  Hon.  C.  W.  Upham — Illness  of  Dr. 
Sewall  —  Letter  to  Mrs.  Brinley. 

CHAPTER    VI.  — 1845-1849 .    V  V    .    '.*   ;    :  *  V    165 

Address  before  the  Law  School  in  Cambridge  —  Argues  the 
Case  of  Rhode  Island  v.  Massachusetts  —  Defence  of  Tirrell 

—  The  Oliver  Smith's  Will  Case  —  Speaks  in  favor  of  Gen- 
eral Taylor  —  Offer  of  a  Professorship  in  the  Cambridge  Law 
School— Offer  of  a  Seat  upon  the  Bench  —  The  Phillips  Will 
Case  —  Journal. 

CHAPTER   VII.  — 1850 215 

Change  of  Partnership  —  Voyage  to  Europe  —  Letters  to  Mrs. 
Choate — Journal. 


CONTENTS.  xvii 

PAGE 
CHAPTER  VIII.  —  1850-1855 249 

Political  Excitement  —  Union  Meetings  —  Address  on  Wash- 
ington, February,  1851  -—  The  Case  of  Fairchild  v.  Adams  — 
Address  before  the  "  Story  Association  "  —  Webster  Meeting 
in  Faneuil  Hall,  November,  1851  —  Argues  an  India-Rubber 
Case  in  Trenton  —  Baltimore  Convention,  June,  1852 —  Ad- 
dress to  the  Phi  Beta  Kappa  Society,  Burlington,  Vt.  —  Jour- 
ney to  Quebec  —  Death  of  Mr.  Webster  —  Letter  to  E. 
Jackson  —  Letter  to  Harvey  Jewell,  Esq.  —  Letter  to  Mrs. 
Eames  —  Offer  of  the  Attorney -Generalship  —  Convention  to 
revise  the  Constitution  of  Massachusetts  —  Eulogy  on  Dan- 
iel Webster,  at  Dartmouth  College  —  Letter  to  his  Daughter 

—  Letters  to  Mrs.  Eames  —  Letter  to  Mr.  Everett  —  Letters 
to  his  Son  —  Letters  to  his  Daughter  —  Address  at  the  Dedi- 
cation of  the  Peabody  Institute,  September,  1854  —  Letters  to 
Mr.  Everett  —  Letter  to  Mrs.  Eames  —  Accident  and  Illness 

—  Letters  to  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Eames. 

CHAPTER   IX.  — 1855-1858 301 

Love  of  the  Union  —  Letter  to  the  Whig  Convention  at  Wor- 
cester, October,  1855 — Letter  to  Rev.  Chandler  Robbins  — 
Letter  to  Mr.  Harvey — Letter  to  Mr.  Everett  —  Lecture  on 
the  Early  British  Poets  of  this  Century,  March,  1856  —  Sir 
Walter  Scott  —  Political  Campaign  of  1856  —  Determines  to 
support  Mr.  Buchanan  —  Letter  to  the  Whigs  of  Maine  — 
Address  at  Lowell  —  Letter  to  J.  C.  Walsh  —  Professional 
Position  —  His  Library  —  Lecture  on  the  Eloquence  of  Revo- 
lutionary Periods,  February,  1857  —  Defence  of  Mrs.  Dalton 

—  Oration  before   the  Boston  Democratic  Club,  July  4th, 
1858. 

CHAPTER   X.  — 1858-1859 358 

Failing  Health  —  Speech  at  the  Webster  Festival,  January, 
1859  —  Address  at  the  Essex  Street  Church  —  Last  Law 
Case  —  Goes  to  Dorchester  —  Occupations  —  Decides  to  go 
to  Europe  —  Letter  to  Hon.  Charles  Eames  —  Letter  to  Alfred 
Abbott,  Esq.  —  Sails  in  the  Europa,  Captain  Leitch — Illness 
on  Board — Lands  at  Halifax  —  Letter  from  Hon.  George  S. 
Hillard — Sudden  Death  —  Proceedings  of  Public  Bodies — 

b 


Xviii  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Meeting  of  the  Boston  Bar  —  Speeches  of  Hon.  C.  G.  Loring, 
K.  H.  Dana,  Jr.,  Judge  Curtis,  and  Judge  Sprague  —  Meeting 
in  Faneuil  Hall  —  Speech  of  Mr.  Everett  —  Funeral. 

CHAPTER   XI 413 

Letter  from  Hon.  John  H.  Clifford  —  Reminiscences  of  Mr. 
Choate's  Habits  in  his  Office  —  Thoroughness  of  Preparation 
of  Cases  —  Manner  of  Legal  Study  —  Intercourse  with  the 
Younger  Members  of  the  Bar  —  Manner  to  the  Court  and  the 
Jury  —  Charges  and  Income  —  Vocabulary  —  Wit  and  Humor 

—  Anecdotes  —  Eloquence  —  Style  —  Note  from  Rev.  Joseph 
Tracy  —  Memory  —  Quotations  —  Fondness    for    Books  — 
Reminiscences  by  a  Friend  —  Life  at  Home  —  Conversation 

—  Religious  Feeling  and  Belief. 


APPENDIX 489 

INDEX  .     .  .  495 


MEMOIR 


HUFUS     CHOATE. 

CHAPTER  I. 

1799-1830. 

Birth  of  Rufus  Choate  —  Ancestry  —  Boyhood  —  Account  by  his 
Brother  —  Studies  —  Characteristics  —  Enters  College  —  Rank  — 
Testimony  of  Classmates  —  Dartmouth  College  Case  —  Its  Influ- 
ence on  his  Choice  of  a  Profession  —  Extract  from  Judge  Perley's 
Eulogy  — Tutor  at  Dartmouth  —  Letter  from  Dr.  Sewall  —  Enters 
Law  School  in  Cambridge  —  Goes  to  Washington  and  studies  with 
Mr.  Wirt  —  Death  of  his  brother  Washington  —  Returns  to  Essex 

—  Admission  to  the  Bar  —  Testimony  of  Mr.  Wirt  —  Opens  an 
Office  in   South   Danvers  —  Letter  to   James  Marsh  —  Marriage 

—  Success  —  Fidelity   to   Clients  —  Letter  from  Judge  Shaw  — 
Testimony  of  Hon.  Asahel  Huntington. 

IN  the  south-eastern  part  of  the  old  town  of  Ipswich, 
Mass.,  on  an  island  which  rises  in  its  centre  to  a  con- 
siderable elevation  and  commands  a  view  of  the  open 
ocean  and  the  neighboring  villages,  RUFUS  CHOATE 
was  born,  as  his  father,  with  ancient  precision,  re- 
corded the  event  in  the  Family  Bible,  "  Tuesday,  Oct. 
1,  1799,  at  3  o'clock,  P.M."  He  was  the  second  son, 
and  the  fourth  of  six  children.  The  district  was  then 
called  Chebacco :  it  has  since  been  formed  into  a 
separate  town  bearing  the  name  of  Essex.  The  in- 
habitants, for  the  most  part  devoted  to  agriculture, 

l 


2  MEMOIR  OF   RUFUS   CHOATE.  [CHAP.  I. 

were  enterprising,  frugal,  thrifty,  and  intelligent. 
The  earliest  ancestor  of  Mr.  Choate  in  this  country 
was  John  Choate,  who  took  the  oath  of  allegiance  in 
1667.  From  him,  the  subject  of  this  biographical 
sketch  is  of  the  fifth  generation  by  direct  descent. 
The  family  spread  widely  in  Essex  County,  and 
several  members  of  it  attained  to  considerable  dis- 
tinction.1 

The  paternal  grandmother  of  Mr.  Choate,  whose 
maiden  name  was  Mary  Giddings,  was  a  matron 
worthy  of  the  best  days  of  New  England.2  His 
father  was  David  Choate,  a  man  of  uncommon  intel- 
lectual endowments,  of  sound  and  independent  judg- 
ment, a  wise  counsellor,  sociable,  sagacious,  modest, 
keen,  and  witty.  He  was  held  in  high  estimation  as 
a  man  of  stability,  unswerving  integrity,  and  weight 
of  character,  and  was  often  chosen  to  fill  places  of 
responsibility  and  trust. 

On  one  occasion,  as  administrator  on  the  estate  of 
his  uncle,  John  Choate,  he  was  obliged  to  go  to  Boston 
to  look  after  a  case  in  court.  At  the  trial,  the  counsel 
upon  whom  he  had  relied  failed  to  appear.  Mr.  Choate 

1  In  1741,  John  Choate,  Esq.,  was  a  member  of  the  House  of 
Representatives  for  Ipswich,  and  was  elected  Speaker;  but  the  elec- 
tion was  negatived  by  Governor  Belcher.     He  continued  a  prominent 
member  of  the   House  —  his  name   appearing  on  many  important 
committees  —  till   1761,  —  when  he  was  elected  into  the  Board  of 
Councillors,  (who  were  then  what  both  the  Senate  and  Council  now 
are  in  Massachusetts),  to  which  responsible  position  he  was  re-elected 
every  successive  year  till  1766. 

2  Her  courage  is  indicated  by  an  anecdote  told  of  her,  that  in  the 
war  of  the  Revolution,  when  all  the  men  left  the  island,  driving  to 
the  uplands  the  herds  of  cattle  which  would  otherwise  have  offered 
a  tempting  prize  to  the  British  cruisers,  she,  with  her  two  small  chil- 
dren, remained  fearless  upon  the  farm. 


1700-1830.]  EARLY  LIFE.  3 

thereupon  asked  that  the  cause  might  be  continued. 
On  stating  the  matter  as  clearly  as  he  could,  the 
judge,  after  a  little  consultation,  said  to  him,  "  I  think 
you  understand  the  case,  Mr.  Choate,  and  we  can 
manage  it  together.  You  had  better  conduct  it  your- 
self." Thus  unexpectedly  summoned  to  the  bar,  after 
some  hesitation  he  called  his  witnesses,  made  his  ar- 
gument, and  obtained  a  verdict. 

There  is  a  report,  which  seems  to  rest  on  good 
authority,  that  at  the  time  of  the  ratification  of  the 
Federal  Constitution  in  Massachusetts  he  wrote  sev- 
eral articles  for  a  Boston  newspaper  in  favor  of  that 
measure,  under  the  signature  of  "  Farmer,"  some  of 
winch  were  currently  ascribed  to  Theophilus  Parsons, 
already  an  eminent  lawyer,  and  afterwards  Chief  Jus- 
tice of  the  State.  Mr.  Choate  died  in  1808,  before 
his  son  had  attained  his  ninth  year. 

The  mother  of  Rufus  was  Miriam  Foster,  a  quiet, 
sedate,  but  cheerful  woman,  dignified  in  manner,  quick 
in  perception,  of  strong  sense  and  ready  wit.  Her 
son  was  said  to  resemble  her  in  many  characteristics 
of  mind  and  person.  She  lived  to  see  his  success  and 
enjoy  his  fame,  and  died  in  1853,  at  the  venerable  age 
of  eighty-one. 

When  his  son  was  about  six  months  old,  Mr.  David 
Choate  removed  from  the  island  to  the  village  on  the 
mainland,  about  three  miles  distant,  but  still  retained 
the  old  homestead.  It  had  been  in  possession  of  the 
family  for  four  generations,  and  for  more  than  a  hun- 
dred years,  and  is  still  owned  by  the  descendants  of 
an  older  brother  of  Mr.  Choate.1  An  arm  of  the  sea 

1  Hon.  David  Choate,  greatly  honored  and  beloved  by  all  who 
knew  him,  died  Dec.  17,  1872. 


4  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS   CHOATE.  [CHAP.  L 

flows  pleasantly  about  it,  and  a  little  creek  runs  up 
to  within  twenty  rods  of  the  old  dwelling,  which 
stands  on  the  hillside,  hardly  changed  from  what  it 
was  sixty  years  since,  of  two  stories,  heavy-timbered, 
low-roomed,  with  beams  across  the  ceiling,  bare  and 
weather-beaten,  but  with  a  cheerful  southerly  out- 
look towards  the  marshes,  the  sea,  and  the  far-off 
rocky  shore  of  Cape  Ann. 

The  new  residence  still  commanded  a  view  of  the 
ocean.  The  little  village  was  the  head  of  navigation 
for  a  species  of  fishing-craft  much  built  there,  known 
along  the  coast  as  "Chebacco  boats."  Frequent  ex- 
cursions to  the  old  farm  were,  of  course,  necessary ; 
and  these  little  voyages  down  the  river  which  forces 
its  crooked  way  through  the  salt  marshes,  were  gen- 
erally made  in  a  canoe  dug  out  of  a  solid  log.  During 
the  war  of  1812,  the  English  and  American  cruisers 
were  frequently  seen  in  the  bay.  On  one  occasion 
especially,  the  "Tenedos"  and  "Shannon,"  tall  and 
beautiful,  "sitting  like  two  swans  upon  the  water," 
were  watched  from  the  shore  with  great  interest,  and 
by  none  with  more  concentrated  gaze  than  by  the  boy 
Rufus.  All  these  circumstances,  —  the  murmur  of  the 
sea  which  lulled  him  to  sleep,  the  rage  of  the  ocean 
in  a  storm,  the  white  sails  in  the  distant  harbor,  the 
boats  which  went  out  of  the  river  and  never  re- 
turned, the  stories  of  adventures  and  perils,  —  nat- 
urally tended  to  stimulate  his  imagination,  to  cherish 
that  love  of  the  sea  which  became  almost  a  passion, 
and  which  so  often  shows  itself  in  his  speeches  and 
writings.  To  the  last,  he  thought  that  to  be  a  sea- 
captain  was  "eminently  respectable."  Accounts  of 
naval  battles  he  read  with  the  greatest  eagerness ; 


1799-1830.]  EARLY  LIFE.  5 

and  many  were  the  mimic  contests  on  land  to  which 
they  gave  birth.  "  I  well  remember,"  says  his  brother, 
"  his  acting  over  certain  parts  of  a  sea-fight  with  other 
boys,  he  telling  them  what  to  do,  how  to  load,  at  what 
to  aim,  not  how  to  strike  a  flag  (that  never  seemed  to 
come  into  the  category),  but  how  to  nail  one  to  the 
mast,  with  orders  to  let  it  wave  while  he  lived.  Many 
of  his  chimney-corner  sports  had  relation  to  either 
naval  or  land  engagements.  I  remember  that  while 
he  and  Washington  1  were  waiting  for  the  family  to 
breakfast,  dine,  or  sup  (that  was  the  way  the  children 
were  then  taught  to  do),  one  would  have  the  dog  and 
the  other  the  cat,  each  holding  it  fast;  and,  at  the 
signal,  bringing  them  suddenty  together,  in  imitation 
of  two  hostile  ships  or  'armies,  Rufus,  in  the  mean 
time,  repeating  the  story  of  a  real  or  imagined  fight 
with  as  much  volubility  as  he  ever  afterwards  used 
in  court,  and  with  such  an  arrangement  of  the  plan 
of  the  fight  as  made  all  seem  wonderfully  real." 

Scenes  of  military  and  naval  life  fastened  strongly 
upon  his  imagination.  He  often  said  that  nothing 
ever  made  a  deeper  impression  upon  his  boyish  mind 
than  the  burial  of  an  officer  with  military  honors,  and 
the  volleys  fired  over  his  grave.  In  August,  1813, 
he  went  to  Salem  to  witness  the  ceremony  of  the 
reinterment  of  the  bodies  of  Capt.  James  Lawrence 
and  Lieut.  Augustus  C.  Ludlow,  who  were  killed  on 
board  the  "  Chesapeake,"  and  were  at  first  buried  at 
Halifax.  Although  he  could  not  hear  Judge  Story's 
Eulogy,  he  made  his  brother  repeat  to  him  all  that 
he  could  remember  of  it.  The  opening  sentence, 
"  Welcome  to  their  native  shores  be  the  remains  of 

1  His  younger  brother. 


6  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS   CHOATE.  [CHAP.  L 

our  departed  heroes,"  especially  filled  him  with  ec- 
stasy. It  is  not  surprising,  then,  that  the  dreams  of 
his  early  ambition  should  have  been  of  braving  the 
perils  of  the  sea,  or  commanding  a  man-of-war. 

His  constitution  was  vigorous,  and  in  all  the  sports 
of  boyhood  he  was  more  than  a  match  for  his  com- 
panions, spending  as  many  hours  as  any  one  upon  the 
play-ground,  and  tiring  out  almost  all  his  competitors 
by  his  activity  and  skill.  In  the  necessary  labor  of 
the  farm  he  was  equally  diligent  and  faithful.  A 
man  is  now  living  with  whom  he  once  worked  in 
laying  a  •  stone  wall,  and  who  thought  it  a  pity  that 
so  strong  and  active  a  lad  should  be  sent  to  College, 
but  pardoned  it,  when  really  determined  upon,  be- 
cause he  worked  so  well. 

"  Even  in  doing  field-work,"  says  his  brother,  "  if 
the  nature  of  the  employment  could  possibly  admit  of 
it,  he  would  get  up  some  excitement  to  enliven  the 
hour.  Thus,  in  the  laborious  occupation  of  building 
the  wall,  or  digging  and  hauling  stone  preparatory  to 
it,  he  was  the  favorite  of  the  master-workmen.  Al- 
though no  part  of  the  labor  was  such  as  admitted  of 
much  haste,  yet  the  wall-builder  would  often  refer  to 
these  occasions  after  my  brother  began  to  figure  a  little 
in  life,  to  tell  how  springy  he  was  about  his  work; 
how  he  would  jump  to  hook  or  unhook  the  chain,  to 
start  or  stop  the  team,  hand  a  crowbar,  clap  a  bait  (as 
it  is  called  in  New  England)  under  the  lever  ;  and  how 
he  would  shout  when  the  rock  started  from  its  bed 
and  reached  the  surface,  or  its  place  in  the  wall.  A 
single  remark  once  made  by  him,  while  at  work  as 
above,  goes  to  show  that  even  then,  as  he  had  just  got 
under  way  in  Latin,  he  sometimes  glanced  a  thought 


1700-1830.]  EARLY   LIFE.  7 

forward  to  the  future :  thus,  '  Mr.  N.  (to  the  wall- 
builder),  if  ever  I'm  a  lawyer,  I'll  plead  all  your  cases 
for  nothing.' ' 

An  intense  love  of  reading  and  of  knowledge  in 
general  was  early  developed.  Before  he  was  six  years 
old,  he  had  devoured  the  "  Pilgrim's  Progress,"  and 
used  afterwards  to  gather  his  companions  and  rehearse 
it  to  them  from  memory.  Bunyan  was  always  a  great 
favorite.  But  a  few  years  before  he  died,  he  borrowed 
from  his  brother  the  old  volume,  with  its  quaint  pic- 
tures and  soiled  pages,  which  brought  back  so  much 
of  his  childhood.  Another  book,  of  .a  different  kind, 
which  he  used  to  read  with  the  greatest  avidity,  was  a 
worn  and  well-thumbed  copy  of  the  "  Life  of  Maurice, 
Count  Saxe,"  from  which  a  year  or  two  since  he 
repeated  page  after  page,  to  the  surprise  and  amuse- 
ment of  some  of  his  family  by  whom  a  question  had 
been  started  with  reference  to  the  battle  of  Fontenoy. 
"  Marshal  Saxe  at  the  Opera"  (accenting  the  second 
syllable  according  to  his  boyish  habit)  used  long  to  be 
one  of  the  playful  phrases  in  use  between  himself  and 
his  children. 

The  apparent  ease  with  which  he  mastered  the  con- 
tents pf  a  book  has  been  the  subject  of  remark.  This 
characteristic  was  as  noticeable,  perhaps,  in  childhood 
as  any  other.  Dr.  Sewall,  his  brother-in-law,  took 
the  numbers  of  the  Edinburgh  Encyclopaedia,  which 
came  uncut  and  half-bound.  Rufus  used  to  offer  to 
cut  the  leaves,  and  even  begged  to  do  it.  The  truth 
was,  that  while  doing  it,  and  even  while  conversing 
with  others,  he  would  run  his  eye  over  the  articles 
which  interested  him ;  and,  as  the  doctor  said,  "  he 
Nknew  more  about  the  book  by  the  time  the  leaves 


8  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS   CHOATE.  [CHAP.  I. 

were  cut,  than  he  (the  doctor)  was  likely  to  know  for 
a  long  time." 

His  tenacity  of  memory  was  equally  remarkable,  so 
that  to  his  friends  he  seemed  to  remember  about  all 
that  he  read.  Years  after,  indeed,  while  a  member 
of  college,  he  would  take  a  book  into  his  sleeping- 
chamber  and  look  over  a  chapter  the  last  thing  before 
retiring,  and  then  on  awakening  in  the  morning,  with- 
out looking  at  the  page,  would  repeat  it  to  his  brother, 
handing  him  the  book  to  look  over  and  see  if  he  re- 
peated correctly.  Nor  were  these  voluntary  trials 
selected  from  poetry  or  fiction  or  narratives  merely,  but 
sometimes,  at  least  as  his  brother  remembers,  from 
such  condensed  and  weighty  writings  as  John  Foster's 
essay  on  "  Decision  of  Character." 

The  village  library  of  a  few  hundred  volumes,  con- 
taining such  works  as  "  Rollin's  Ancient  History," 
"  Josephus,"  "Plutarch,"  " Telemachus,"  and  "  Hutch- 
inson's  History  of  Massachusetts,"  he  had  pretty  nearly 
exhausted  before  he  was  ten  years  old.  During  all 
these  early  years  the  Bible  was  read  and  re-read 
with  more  than  ordinary  thoughtfulness  ;  and  early  in 
the  war  of  1812,  he  made  what  he  thought  was  the 
great  discovery  of  an  undoubted  prophecy  of  Napoleon 
Bonaparte,  in  the  Book  of  Daniel.  He  was,  at  the 
same  time,  an  attentive  and  critical  hearer  of  ser- 
mons, even  if  the  minister  was  dull.  "  When  about 
nine  years  old,"  says  his  brother,  "he  took  us  all 

by  surprise  one  Sabbath  noon,  by  saying  '  Mr. 

(naming  the  preacher)  had  better  mind  what  he  says 
about  James  (the  apostle),  even  James,'  repeating  the 
words  emphatically.  The  minister  had  been  quoting 
Paul,  and  added, '  even  James  says,  For  what  is  your 


1799-1830.]  EARLY  LIFE.  9 

life  ? '  The  remark  went  to  show  us  —  the  family  — 
not  only  that  he  had  attended  to  what  had  been  said 
(which  we  had  not  done),  but  that  he  saw  an  objec- 
tion to  the  comparison,  implied  at  least,  between  the 
two  apostles,  both  of  whom  were  inspired,  and  conse- 
quently that  the  inspiration  of  James  must  have  been 
as  good  as  that  of  Paul,  because  of  the  same  origin  in 
both." 

He  was  remarkable  during  his  youth  for  the  same 
sweetness  of  temper,  and  quick  sense  of  the  ludicrous, 
which  he  carried  with  him  through  life.  He  was  easily 
persuaded  to  a  particular  course  of  conduct,  by  his 
mother  or  sisters,  and  could  not  bear  to  grieve  them, 
and  so  in  all  differences  between  them,  if  he  could  not 
carry  his  point  by  good-natured  pleasantry,  he  would 
yield  with  the  best  grace  in  the  world.  By  the  same 
humor,  he  sometimes  warded  off  reproof,  even  when 
justly  merited.  An  older  sister  was  once  beginning  to 
admonish  him  for  something  which  he  had  done,  which 
was  clearly  wrong.  He  saw  it  coming  and  was  de- 
termined to  break  the  force  of  it.  While  she  was 
bestowing  the  rebuke  with  the  earnestness  which  the 
offence  seemed  to  deserve,  happening  to  raise  her  e}res, 
she  saw  him  standing  with  his  right  hand  up  by  the 
side  of  his  head,  in  the  attitude  of  a  person  to  whom  an 
oath  is  administered,  and  with  a  face  of  extraordinary 
demureness  and  solemnity.  The  sight  of  him  in  this 
roguish  position  put  an  end  at  once  to  the  lecture  and 
to  the  feeling  which  prompted  it.  The  loudest  of 
laughs  ended  the  scene. 

In  all  boyish  sports  and  studies,  his  companions 
were  few :  the  most  intimate  of  them  all  was  his  brother 
Washington,  a  little  more  than  three  years  younger 


10  MEMOIR   OF  RUFUS   CHOATE.  [CHAP.  I. 

than  himself.  Although  during  his  early  youth  neither 
of  his  parents  were  members  of  the  church,  the  moral 
discipline  of  the  family  was  careful  and  exact.  A  por- 
tion of  the  "  Assembly's  Catechism  "  was  recited  every 
Sabbath,  and  the  lessons  thus  learned  were  so  deeply 
engraven  on  his  memory  as  never  to  be  forgotten.  On 
one  occasion  in  later  life,  in  commenting  upon  the 
testimony  of  a  witness  who  professed  his  willingness 
to  do  any  job  that  might  offer  on  Sunday,  just  as  he 
would  on  any  other  day,  Mr.  Choate  repeated,  word  for 
word,  one  of  the  long  answers  of  that  venerable  symbol 
on  the  import  of  the  fourth  commandment,  and  then 
turning  to  the  Court,  said,  '•  May  it  please  your  Honor, 
my  mother  taught  me  this  in  my  earliest  childhood, 
and  I  trust  I  shall  not  forget  it  in  my  age." 

Mr.  Choate  was  favored  in  his  childhood  with  some 
excellent  friends  beyond  the  circle  of  his  own  relatives. 
Among  these  was  Dr.  R.  D.  Mussey,1  who  commenced 
the  practice  of  the  profession  in  which  he  afterwards 
became  so  eminent,  in  Essex,  and  for  several  years  re- 
sided in  the  family  of  Mr.  David  Choate.  At  the  age  of 
ten  years,  Rufus  began  the  study  of  Latin,  under  the 
instruction  of  Dr.  Thomas  Sewall,2  who  had  taken 
Dr.  Mussey's  place.  He  continued  his  studies  for  a 
few  months,  yearly,  during  the  next  six  years,  under 
the  clergyman  of  the  parish,  Rev.  Mr.  Holt,  or  the 
teachers  of  the  district  school.  Among  these  should 
be  mentioned  Rev.  Dr.  William  Cogswell,  who  taught 
the  school  during  the  successive  winters  of  his  Junior 
and  Senior  years  in  college. 

1  After  a  life  of  great  honor  and  usefulness,  Dr.  Mussey  died  in 
Boston,  June  21,  1866,  at  the  advanced  age  of  eighty-six  years. 

2  Dr.  Sewall  afterward  married  Mr.  Choate's  oldest  sister,  and 
subsequently  removed  to  Washington,  D.C.,  where  he  was  long  known 
as  an  eminent  physician. 


1799-1830.]  EARLY  LIFE.  11 

These  opportunities,  of  course,  afforded  the  young 
student  a  very  imperfect  discipline,  but  they  served  in 
some  degree  to  stimulate  his  mind,  while  teaching  him 
the  necessity  of  self-reliance  and  independent  exertion. 
Certain  it  is  that  with  his  poor  chanoes  he  accomplished 
more  than  most  others  with  the  best.  He  meditated 
upon  what  he  read,  and  treasured  up  the  fruits  in  a 
retentive  memory.  His  imagination  even  then  pic- 
tured the  scenes  of  ancient  story,  and  transferred  the 
fictions  of  Homer  and  Virgil  to  the  shores  of  Essex. 
••  There."  said  he,  pointing  out  a  rocky,  cavernous 
knoll  to  his  son-in-law,  as  they  were  riding  a  few  years 
since  from  Ipswich  to  Essex,  **  there  is  the  descent  to 
Avernus."  This  habit  of  making  the  scenes  of  poetry 
and  history  real,  of  vivifying  them  through  his  imagi- 
nation, was  one  which  followed  him  through  life,  and 
contributed  largely  to  his  power  as  an  orator.  Some- 
thing allied  to  this  is  that  touch  of  human  sympathy 
for  inanimate  objects,  of  which  Dr.  Adams  speaks  in 
his  Funeral  Address.  When  as  a  boy  he  drove  his 
father's  cow,  ••  he  has  said  that  more  than  once,  when 
he  had  thrown  away  his  switch,  he  has  returned  to  find 
it.  and  has  carried  it  back,  and  thrown  it  under  the 
tree  from  which  he  took  it.  for.  he  said.  *  Perhaps  there 
is.  after  all,  some  yearning  of  nature  between  them 
still.' r' 

By  way  of  completing  his  preparation  for  college  he 
was  sent,  in  January.  1815.  to  the  academy  in  Hamp- 
ton, X.  H..  of  which  James  Adams  was  then  the  princi- 
pal. Here  he  remained  till  summer,  when  he  entered 
the  Freshman  class  in  Dartmouth  College,  near  the 
close  of  his  sixteenth  year.  His  classmates  remember 
him  as  a  diffident,  modest,  beautiful  boy,  the  youngest 


12  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS   CHOATE.  [CHAP.  I. 

in  the  class  with  two  exceptions,  singularly  attractive 
in  person  and  manner,  of  a  delicate  frame,  with  dark 
curling  hair,  a  fresh,  ruddy  complexion,  a  beautifully 
ingenuous  countenance,  his  movements  marked  with  a 
natural  grace  and  vivacity,  and  his  mind  from  the  first 
betraying  the  spirit  of  a  scholar. 

"  There  he  brought,"  says  one  of  his  eulogists,1  "  a 
mind  burning  with  a  thirst  for  knowledge,  which  death 
alone  had  power  to  quench,  kindled  with  aspirations 
lofty,  but  as  yet  undefined  and  vague,  and  stocked  with 
an  amount  of  general  information  quite  remarkable  for 
his  years  ;  a  physical  constitution  somewhat  yielding 
and  pliant,  of  great  nervous  sensibility,  but  equalled 
by  few  for  endurance  and  elastic  strength.  He  came 
pure  from  every  taint  of  vice,  generous,  enthusiastic, 
established  in  good  principles,  good  habits,  and  good 
health."  The  necessary  imperfection  of  his  fitting  for 
college,  and  his  own  modesty,  prevented,  in  a  measure, 
the  full  recognition  of  his  ability  during  the  first  term 
of  his  residence  at  Dartmouth.  But  the  deficiency,  if 
it  were  one,  was  soon  supplied.  He  acquired  knowl- 
edge with  extraordinary  rapidity.  His  memory  was 
very  retentive  ;  the  command  of  his  faculties,  and  his 
power  of  concentration,  perfect.  "  His  perception  of 
the  truths  of  a  new  lesson,"  says  one  of  his  class- 
mates, "  and  their  connection  and  relation  to  other 
truths  already  familiar  to  him,  was  so  intuitive  and 
rapid,  that  I  have  yet  to  learn  of  the  first  man  who 
could  study  a  new  subject  in  company  with  him,  and 
not  prove  a  clog  and  an  incumbrance."  At  the  same 
time  he  was  a  most  diligent  and  faithful  student. 

1  Hon.  Ira  Perley,  lately  Chief  Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  of 
New  Hampshire,  in  a  eulogy  pronounced  at  Dartmouth  College,  July 
25,  1860. 


1799-1830.]  COLLEGE  LIFE.  13 

"  I  entered  the  class,"  writes  another  member  of  it,1 
"  in  the  spring  of  the  Freshman  year,  when  its  mem- 
bers had  already  joined  the  societies  and  found  their 
affinities.  ...  I  was  acquainted  with  some  members  of 
the  class  before  I  entered  college,  and  remember  mak- 
ing natural  inquiries  in  the  winter  vacation,  about  the 
associates  I  should  find  in  it.  Several  were  named  as 
having  taken  high  rank  during  the  fall  term,  but 
Choate  was  not  mentioned.  I  was  the  more  struck 
therefore,  at  the  first  recitation,  as  I  watched  each  suc- 
cessive voice  with  the  keen  curiosity  of  a  new-comer, 
when  Choate  got  up,  and  in  those  clear  musical  tones 
put  Livy's  Latin  into  such  exquisitely  fit  and  sweet 
English,  as  I  had  not  dreamed  of,  and  in  comparison 
with  which  all  the  other  construing  of  that  morning 
seemed  the  roughest  of  unlicked  babble.  After  the 
first  sentence  or  two,  I  had  no  doubt  who  was  the  first 
classical  scholar  among  us,  or  who  had  the  best  com- 
mand of  English.  I  was  on  one  side  of  the  room  and 
he  on  the  other,  and  I  remember  as  if  but  yesterday, 
his  fresh,  personal  beauty,  and  all  the  graceful  charm 
of  modest,  deferential  look  and  tone  that  accompanied 
the  honeyed  words.  .  .  .  The  impression  that  his  first 
words  made  upon  me  was  peculiar  ;  and  nothing,  lit- 
erally nothing,  while  in  college  or  since,  ever  came 
from  him  to  disturb  the  affectionate  admiration,  with 
which  in  the  old  recitation-room,  in  the  presence  of 
Tutor  Bond,  I  first  heard  his  voice,  his  words,  his  sen- 
tences, —  all,  even  then,  so  exquisite  in  their  expres- 
sion of  genius  and  scholarly  accomplishments.  I  have 
always  felt  my  connection  with  that  class  as  a  peculiar 
felicity  of  my  college  life  ;  and  to  us  all  Choate 's  cora- 

1  E.  C.  Tracy,  for  many  years  editor  of  the  "  Vermont  Chronicle." 


14  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS  CHOATE.  [CHAP.  I. 

panionship  through  the  four  years  was  a  blessing  and 
an  honor." 

What  was  thus  begun,  he  carried  through  to  the 
end.  As  early  as  his  Sophomore  year  he  entered 
upon  a  course  of  thorough,  systematic  study,  not  with 
the  object  of  excelling  his  classmates,  but  to  satisfy 
the  ideal  of  excellence  which  filled  his  own  mind. 
He  never,  while  in  college,  mingled  very  freely  in  the 
sports  of  the  play-ground,  and  yet  was  never  a  re- 
cluse. His  door  was  always  open  to  any  one  who 
called  to  see  him.  But  his  example  did  much  to  set 
the  standard  of  scholarship,  and  to  impart  a  noble 
and  generous  spirit  to  the  class  and  the  college. 

The  years  that  Mr.  Choate  spent  at  Dartmouth  were 
among  the  most  critical  in  the  history  of  that  institu- 
tion. A  difficulty  of  many  years'  standing,  between 
President  John  Wheelock  and  the  Board  of  Trustees, 
culminated  in  1815  in  his  deposition  from  office,  and 
the  election  of  another  President  in  his  place.  The 
question  soon  became  involved  in  the  politics  of  the 
State,  and  the  legislature,  in  June,  1816,  passed  an  act 
incorporating  an  adverse  institution,  called  the  Dart- 
mouth University,  and  granting  to  it  the  seal,  the 
libraries,  the  buildings,  and  the  revenues  of  the  col- 
lege. New  officers  were  appointed,  and  a  small  number 
of  students  collected.  The  trustees  denied  the  consti- 
tutional power  of  the  legislature  to  pass  such  an  act, 
and  carried  the  case  before  the  legal  tribunals.  In  No- 
vember, 1817,  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  State  decided 
against  them.  The  college  was  without  buildings, 
without  libraries,  without  apparatus,  without  resour- 
ces. The  recitations  were  held  wherever  rooms  could 
be  found  in  the  village.  A  President,  two  Professors, 


1799-1830.]  COLLEGE   LIFE.  15 

and  one  or  two  Tutors,  performed  the  whole  duty  of 
instruction  and  government.  The  public  mind  was 
profoundly  agitated  with  hopes  and  fears,  in  which 
the  students  largely  shared.  From  the  decision  of 
the  State  Court,  an  appeal  was  taken  to  the  Supreme 
Court  at  Washington.  A  question  of  local  interest 
spread  itself  to  dimensions  of  national  importance. 
Jeremiah  Mason,  Jeremiah  Smith,  Daniel  Webster, 
and  Francis  Hopkinson  were  counsel  for  the  College. 
John  Holmes  and  William  Wirt,  for  the  University. 
The  minds  of  the  students  were  stimulated  by  the 
unusual  circumstances,  and  probably  there  never  was 
a  time  in  the  history  of  the  college,  when  a  spirit 
of  study,  of  order,  and  of  fidelity  to  every  duty, 
more  thoroughly  pervaded  the  whole  body,  than 
when  there  were  hardly  any  means  of  enforcing  obe- 
dience, and  the  very  existence  of  the  institution  de- 
pended upon  the  doubtful  decision  of  a  legal  question. 
The  contest  itself  imparted  a  sense  of  reality  and 
practicalness  to  the  college  life,  and  a  desire  of  high 
attainment  and  honorable  action  seemed  to  be  the  per- 
vading spirit  of  the  community  of  students.  It  was 
during  this  period  that  Mr.  Choate's  mind  was,  by 
several  circumstances,  decisively  turned  to  the  law  as 
a  profession.  He  probably  heard  Judge  Smith,  Mr. 
Mason,  and  Mr.  Webster  in  their  defence  of  the  col- 
lege at  Exeter  in  September,  1817.  "  He  certainly 
heard  Webster  in  the  celebrated  trial  of  the  Kennis- 
tons  at  Ipswich,  in  the  autumn  of  the  same  year." 
In  the  college,  there  existed  at  this  time  two  rival  lit- 
erary societies,  The  Social  Friends  and  The  United 
Fraternity,  each  possessing  a  small  but  valuable 
library.  On  the  plea  of  preserving  these  libraries, 


16  MEMOIR  OF   RUFUS   CHOATE.  [CHAP.  I. 

some  of  the  officers  of  the  University  determined 
to  remove  them  from  the  college  building.  Not 
having  the  keys,  the  door  of  The  Social  Friends 
was  broken  in  by  a  number  of  persons,  headed  and 
directed  by  an  officer  of  the  University,  and  prepar- 
ations made  for  carrying  away  the  books.  They 
had  hardly  entered  before  the  students  of  both  soci- 
eties, exasperated  at  the  unexpected  attack,  rallied 
for  a  defence  .of  their  property.  The  band  which  had 
entered  the  room  was  at  once  imprisoned  in  it,  and 
finally  disarmed  and  conducted  to  their  several  homes. 
Mr.  Choate  was  then  librarian  of  the  society  whose 
property  was  invaded,  and,  as  a  result  of  the  proceed- 
ings in  which  he  bore  some  share,  found  himself  with 
several  fellow-students,  summoned  the  next  day  be- 
fore a  pliant  justice  of  the  peace,  who  bound  them  all 
over  to  take  their  trial  before  a  superior  court  on  the 
charge  of  riot.  Their  accusers  were  also  arraigned 
before  another  justice,  and  bound  over  to  answer  to 
the  same  tribunal.  To  the  court  they  went  at  Haver- 
hill.  The  most  eminent  lawyers  in  the  State  then 
practised  in  Grafton  County.  The  case  never  came 
to  a  hearing,  the  Grand  Jury  finding  no  bill  against 
the  parties  ;  but  the  appearance  of  the  court,  —  Chief 
Justice  Richardson,  Judge  Bell,  and  Judge  Woodbury 
upon  the  bench,  —  and  the  eminent  legal  ability  of 
the  bar,  where  were  such  lawyers  as  George  Sullivan, 
Jeremiah  Mason,  Jeremiah  Smith,  Richard  Fletcher, 
Ichabod  Bartlett,  Ezekiel  Webster,  and  Joseph  Bell, 
might  be  presumed  to  impress  a  mind  much  less  sus- 
ceptible of  such  influences  than  was  Mr.  Choate's. 

In  the  mean  time,   Mr.  Webster  made  his  great 
argument  for  the  college,  on  the  10th  of  March,  1818. 


1790-1830.]  COLLEGE   LIFE.  17 

All  these  circumstances,  and  perhaps  especially  the 
laurels  won  by  Mr.  Webster  in  that  effort,  directed 
the  young  student's  attention  to  the  advantages,  the 
attractions,  and  the  grandeur  of  that  profession  in 
which  he  was  destined  to  attain  such  eminence.  "  The 
victory  of  Miltiades  would  not  suffer  him  to  sleep." 
"  The  Dartmouth  College  case,"  says  a  distinguished 
statesman,1  "  was  almost  the  first  legal  controversy 
which  brought  into  view  the  relations  of  the  judiciary 
and  the  bar  to  the  great  interests  of  American  learn- 
ing. The  questions  involved  in  it  were  generally 
thought  vitally  important  to  the  cause  of  education 
in  its  highest  and  most  liberal  aspects,  and  the  dis- 
cussion of  them  established  a  harmony  and  excited 
a  sympathy  between  two  vocations  before  thought 
almost  antagonistic,  —  the  academic  and  the  forensic, 
—  which  was  not  without  favorable  results  to  both  of 
them." 

While  Mr.  Choate  was  a  member  of  college,  there 
were  in  the  classes  a  larger  number  of  students  than 
usual  distinguished  for  breadth  and  thoroughness  of 
scholarship,  as  they  have  been  since  for  honorable 
positions  in  literature  and  in  society.  With  some  of 
these  he  formed  friendships  which  terminated  only 
with  their  lives.  By  all  who  knew  him  then  he  was 
ever  remembered  for  his  warm  and  generous  sensi- 
bilities, his  open,  balmy  kindness,  as  well  as  for  his 
influence  over  the  younger  students,  and  his  readiness 
to  help  them.  After  having  decided  upon  his  profes- 
sion, his  desire  was  to  become  a  national  man.  The 
Country,  the  Union  of  the  States,  the  Fathers  of  the 
Republic,  —  these  words  were  frequently  in  his  mouth. 
1  Hon.  George  P.  Marsh. 


18  MEMOIR   OF  RUFUS   CHOATE.  [CHAP.  I. 

General  literature,  which  before  had  been  an  end  with 
him,  now  became  but  the  means  for  the  accomplish- 
ment of  the  purpose  to  which  he  had  consecrated  his 
life.  All  pursuits,  whether  of  elegant  learning  or  of 
graver  non-professional  knowledge,  were  made  but 
adjuncts  and  auxiliaries.  Nor  was  it  in  scholarship 
more  than  in  the  power  of  using  his  acquisitions  that 
he  excelled.  In  the  classics,  in  history,  and  general 
literature,  he  read  far  bej-ond  the  requirements  of  the 
curriculum,  but  knowledge  never  outran  the  power 
of  thought.  His  intellectual  growth  was  sound  and 
healthful.  Chief  Justice  Perley  says  of  him  (in  his 
eulogy),  with  reference  to  this  and  some  kindred 
points :  — 

"  It  was  not  merely  in  scholarship,  in  knowledge 
of  books,  and  literary  attainments  that  he  then  stood 
high  above  all  competition  and  rivalry.  He  was 
even  then  far  less  distinguished  for  the  amount  of  his 
acquisitions,  than  for  vigor  and  grasp  of  mind,  for 
the  discipline  and  training  which  gave  him  complete 
command  of  himself  and  all  that  he  knew.  He  was 
already  remarkable  for  the  same  brilliant  qualities 
which  distinguished  him  in  his  subsequent  career. 
To  those  who  knew  him  then,  and  watched  his  onward 
course,  little  change  was  observable  in  his  style  of 
writing,  or  in  his  manner  of  speaking,  except  such  as 
would  naturally  be  required  by  subjects  of  a  wider 
range  and  more  exciting  occasions.  His  judgment 
seemed  already  manly  and  mature.  He  compre- 
hended his  subject  then,  as  he  did  afterwards,  in 
all  its  bearings  and  relations ;  looked  all  through  it 
with  the  same  deep  and  searching  glance,  had  the  same 
richness  and  fulness  of  style,  and  the  same  felicitous 


1799-1830.]  COLLEGE  LIFE.  19 

command  of  the  most  beautiful  and  expressive  lan- 
guage, the  same  contagious  fervor  of  manner,  and  the 
same  strange  fascination  of  eye  and  voice,  which  on 
a  wider  stage  made  him  in  later  life  one  of  the  most 
powerful  and  persuasive  orators  which  our  country 
has  produced. 

"  I  entered  college  at  the  commencement  of  his 
Senior  year,  and  can  myself  bear  witness  to  the  su- 
premacy which  he  then  held  here,  in  the  unanimous 
judgment  of  his  fellow-students.  No  other  man  was 
ever  mentioned  in  comparison  with  him.  His  public 
college  exercises  were  of  a  very  uncommon  charac- 
ter. Unless  I  was  greatly  misled  by  a  boyish  judg- 
ment at  the  time,  or  am  strangely  deceived  by  looking 
at  them  through  the  recollections  of  forty  years,  no 
college  exercises  of  an  undergraduate  that  I  have 
ever  heard  are  at  all  worthy  to  be  compared  with 
them,  for  beauty  of  style,  for  extent  and  variety 
of  illustration,  for  breadth  and  scope,  and  for  manly 
comprehension  of  the  subject.  At  this  distance  of 
time,  I  well  remember  every  public  exercise  per- 
formed by  him  while  I  was  a  member.  I  have  heard 
him  often  since,  and  on  some  of  the  occasions  when 
he  is  understood  to  have  made  the  most  successful 
displays  of  his  eloquence  ;  I  heard  him  when  he  stood 
upon  this  spot  to  pronounce  his  eulogy  on  Webster, 
which  has  been  considered,  on  authority  from  which, 
on  such  a  question,  there  lies  no  appeal,  to  be  un- 
equalled among  the  performances  of  its  class  in  this 
country,  and  I  can  sincerely  say  that  nothing  I  have 
ever  heard  from  him  in  the  maturity  and  full  growth 
of  his  powers,  has  produced  upon  me  a  deeper  im- 
pression, or  filled  me  at  the  time  with  a  more  absorb- 


20  MEMOIR   OF  RUFUS  CHOATE.  [CHAP.  I. 

ing  and  rapt  sensation  of  delight,  than  those  college 
exercises. 

"  His  Honor,  Mr.  Justice  Nesmith,  in  his  remarks 
made  here  at  the  last  Commencement,  spoke  of  Mr. 
Choate's  address  as  President  of  the  Social  Friends, 
to  certain  Freshmen  who  were  admitted  to  the  Society 
in  the  first  term  of  the  year  1818.  I  was  one  of  those 
Freshmen,  and  shall  never  forget  the  effect  produced 
by  that  address.  I  remember,  too,  what  Mr.  Nesmith 
is  more  likely  to  have  forgotten,  that  on  the  same 
evening  there  was  a  high  discussion  in  the  Society 
between  two  members  of  Mr.  Choate's  class,  on  a 
very  large  question,  not  then  entirely  new,  nor  yet, 
that  I  have  heard,  finally  decided,  '  whether  ancient 
or  modern  poetry  had  the  superiority.'  Mr.  Choate 
was  required,  as  President,  by  the  rules  of  the  Society, 
to  give  his  decision  upon  the  question.  As  might  be 
expected  from  the  general  bias  of  his  mind,  he  took 
strong  ground  for  the  ancients,  and  I  well  remember, 
at  this  distance  of  time,  the  general  course  of  his 
remarks  upon  the  subject." 

But  though  the  position  of  Mr.  Choate  among  his 
classmates  was  early  determined,  and  never  for  one 
moment  afterwards  in  doubt,  no  student  ever  bore  his 
academic  honors  with  greater  modesty,  or  was  regarded 
by  his  classmates  with  a  more  sincere  affection.  Envy 
was  swallowed  up  in  admiration.  The  influence  of  so 
distinguished  a  scholar  was  not  confined  to  his  own 
class,  but  was  diffused  throughout  college.  In  all 
matters  of  literature  he  was  the  oracle  from  which 
there  was  no  appeal.  With  sensibilities  warm  and 
generous,  never  showing  an  unkind  emotion,  or  doing 
a  dishonorable  act,  it  is  not  surprising  that  his  influ- 


1709-1830.]  COLLEGE   LIFE.  21 

ence  should  have  been  great,  or  that  his  memory  should 
be  affectionately  cherished  by  many  who  have  hardly 
seen  him  for  forty  years.  "  Meeting  him  one  day 
about  the  last  of  November,"  writes  one  who  was  in 
college  with  him,1  "  something  was  said  about  the 
manner  of  spending  the  winter  vacation,  and  I  frankly 
told  him  that  the  want  of  funds  required  me  to  teach 
a  school  the  next  quarter.  In  reply  he  said,  '  You 
had  better  hire  money  and  pay  ten  per  cent  interest, 
and  remain  here  and  study  and  read,  than  to  lose  any 
part  of  your  college  life.'  .  .  .  Being  the  word  of  a 
Senior  to  a  Freshman  who  had  no  personal  claims  to 
his  friendly  regards,  —  and  of  a  Senior  who  stood 
head  and  shoulders  above  his  coevals,  —  it  made  a 
deep  impression  on  my  mind.  It  was  a  word  not  to 
be  forgotten."  2 

1  Kev.  A.  Converse,  D.D. 

2  The  testimonies  to  the  elevating  and  inspiring  influence  of  this 
ardent  and  enthusiastic  scholar  might  be  greatly  multiplied.    I  will 
quote  but  one  from  the  interesting  series  of  papers  communicated  to  the 
"  Albany  Law  Journal "  by  his  Honor  Judge  Neilson  of  the  City  Court, 
Brooklyn.     It  is  a  part  of  a  letter  from  the  Hon.  Henry  K.  Oliver  of 
Salem.    After  giving  many  interesting  particulars  of  Mr.  Choate's  col- 
lege life,  he  goes  on  to  say,  "  As  I  said,  I  was  not  of  his  class,  that  more 
intimate  association  blessing  the  class  of  1819 ;  yet  his  influence,  both 
personal  and  as  a  scholar,  was  operative  with  every  member  of  the 
seven  classes  that  enjoyed  a  college  life  with  him  ;  an  influence  that, 
seeming  but  small  in  the  beginning,  assumed,  before  the  end  of  the  first 
year,  a  power  and  reach  far  beyond  that  of  any  other  member  of  col- 
lege. .  .  .  Having  once  taken  root,  and  feeling  the  power  and  strength 
of  the  wider  instruction  under  which  his  own  power  and  strength  were 
being  evoked,  he  grew  with  marvellous  rapidity  ;  his  facility  at  con- 
centrating his  mind  upon  any  given  subject,  and  acquiring  all  that  was 
to  be  acquired  about  it,  being  something  which  to  the  rest  of  us  was 
without  parallel,  and  in  every  department  of  study  rapidly  putting 
him  far  in  advance  of  his  fellows.     The  general  standard  by  which 
scholarship  among  us  was  to  be  measured,  received  from  him  a  posi- 


22  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS   CHOATE.  [CHAP.  I. 

On  the  17th  of  August,  1819,  Mr.  Choate  ended  a 
college  course  which  had  been  full  of  joy,  prosperity, 
and  success.  "  The  ideal  scholar,  and  the  pride  of 
the  college,  no  one  had  ever  so  completely  won  the 
admiration  of  the  Faculty,  of  his  fellow-students,  and 
of  the  people  of  Hanover." 1  In  the  appointments 
for  Commencement,  the  highest  place,  with  the  vale- 
dictory oration,  was,  of  course,  assigned  to  him.  His 
health  had  thus  far  been  uninterrupted  and  vigorous, 
but  towards  the  close  of  the  college  year  it  seemed 
about  to  give  way.  He  became  emaciated,  walked 
feebly,  and  was  often  unable  to  attend  to  college 
duties.  Dr.  Mussey,  an  old  friend  of  the  family,  and 
already  eminent  in  his  profession,  took  him  to  his 
house,  and  watched  over  him  by  day  and  by  night. 
The  six  weeks'  vacation,  which  then  preceded  Com- 
mencement, he  passed  upon  a  sick  bed,  and  up  to  the 
final  moment  it  was  quite  uncertain  whether  he  would 
be  able  to  perform  his  part.  At  last  he  came  upon 
the  platform,  pale  and  feeble,  with  every  thing  in  his 
appearance  and  the  tones  of  his  voice  to  awaken  the 
sympathy  of  the  audience,  and  with  barely  strength 
enough  to  deliver  the  strictly  valedictory  address. 
But  in  the  few  words  that  he  spoke,  occupying  proba- 
bly not  more  than  six  or  eight  minutes,  he  moved  his 

tive  and  most  noticeable  elevation  by  what  he  achieved ;  excellence 
rising  to  a  higher  grade,  and  mediocrity  becoming  less  esteemed. 
This  influence  was  felt  among  both  officials  and  undergraduates, 
and  it  began  to  be  realized  that  the  old  rule  of  the  arithmetics,  that 
'  more  required  more,'  was  making  men  work  harder  and  with  more 
of  a  will,  and  that  a  decided  new  departure  had  been  taken,  never 
thereafter  to  be  ignored,  and  from  which  there  was  to  be  no  retro- 
gression." 

1  Letter  of  Hon.  Nathan  Crosby,  of  Lowell. 


1799-18SO.]  COLLEGE   LIFE.  23 

hearers  as  they  were  seldom  or  never  moved  before 
on  any  similar  academic  occasion.  He  spoke  of  the 
peculiar  friendships  of  scholars  ;  of  their  common  love 
of  letters  and  arts ;  of  reverence  for  the  great  and 
good ;  of  the  protracted  and  bitte,r  struggle  through 
which  their  Alma  Mater  —  the  object  of  their  first 
and  warmest  love  —  had  just  successfully  passed,  and 
how  grateful  it  became  them  to  be  as  they  saw  her  at 
last  standing,  as  befitted  her,  proudly  and  in  her  robes, 
with  her  children  and  friends  all  around  her ;  of  their 
high  hopes  and  aims ;  of  the  duty  of  devotion  to  the 
prosperity  and  honor  of  one's  country ;  of  their  pos- 
sible disappointments,  as  some,  whom  they  all  knew, 
had  already  finished  their  work.  In  all  this  he  uncon- 
sciously revealed  some  of  the  grand  moving  springs 
of  his  own  life,  some  of  his  hopes,  and  some  of  his 
fears.  "  To  understand  the  power  of  his  address," 
writes  one  of  his  classmates l  more  than  forty  years 
after  they  had  separated  at  Dartmouth,  "one  must 
see  the  whole  scene.  Here  was  Choate  pale  and 
wasted  by  fever,  with  just  strength  enough  to  enable 
him  to  stand,  and  yet  with  an  eye  flashing  with  the 
fires  of  genius.  The  tones  of  his  voice  were  surpass- 
ingly tender  and  affectionate.  Behind  him  sat  Presi- 
dent Francis  Brown  with  the  hectic  flush  upon  his 
cheek,  and  around  him  the  men  to  whose  wisdom  and 
eloquence  he  so  delicately  alluded,  the  Trustees,  and 
Daniel  Webster,  who  had  carried  the  college  trium- 
phantly through  the  conflict.  I  doubt  whether  Mr. 
Choate  ever  in  his  life  moved  the  sensibilities  of  an 
audience  more  deeply  than  on  this  occasion." 

There  was,  in  what  he  said,  so  much  of  manliness 
1  Hon.  John  Aiken. 


24  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS  CHOATE.  [CHAP.  I. 

and  beauty,  a  tone  so  high,  so  pure,  so  vigorous,  that 
every  eye  was  fixed  ;  and  when  he  alluded  to  his  own 
feeble  health,  his  appearance  and  manner  gave  deep 
solemnity  and  almost  a  prophetic  force  to  his  words. 
The  effect  is  said  to  have  been  unexampled.  Not 
only  his  classmates,  but  half  the  audience,  and  not  a 
few  among  the  grave  trustees,  used  to  such  occasions, 
were  dissolved  in  tears. 

The  next  year  Mr.  Choate  spent  in  the  then  respon- 
sible office  of  tutor  in  the  college,  —  a  year  to  him, 
and  almost  equally  to  his  pupils,  all  sunshine.  "  He 
entered  upon  his  duties,"  writes  one  who  then  became 
his  pupil,1  "  with  such  a  reputation  for  scholarship, 
and  with  such  high  commendations  freely  expressed 
by  classmates  and  the  College  Faculty,  that  the  class 
came  to  him  with  what  in  almost  an}'  case  would  be 
extravagant  expectations  ;  but  in  the  trial  there  was 
no  abatement  of  their  first  love  and  admiration.  Mr. 
Choate's  first  appearance  in  the  recitation-room,  and 
his  brief  address  to  the  class,  won  their  confidence, 
and  inspired  them  with  purposes  of  noble  emulation. 
And  in  a  like  manner  he  influenced  them  through  the 
whole  of  his  tutorship.  He  threw  a  charm  over  the 
services  of  the  recitation-room,  mingling  enjoyment 
with  labor  in  such  a  way  that  his  pupils  loved  to  be 
there,  and  with  him.  How  much  time  and  labor  he 
expended  in  preparation  we  of  course  did  not  know ; 
but  we  did  know  that  he  was  wholly  in  his  business, 
that  he  was  ready  at  all  points,  that  he  was  most  exact 
and  severe  in  the  class-drill,  while,  at  the  same  time, 
every  thing  was  done  with  such  urbanity  and  generous 
familiarity,  and  with  such  affluence  of  auxiliary  sug- 
1  Rev.  Paul  Couch. 


1799-1830.]  COLLEGE  LIFE.  25 

gestions,  that  weariness  was  unknown  in  the  recitation- 
room.  He  was  a  master  in  Latin :  he  revelled  in 
Greek. 

"  Mr.  Choate  had  such  power  over  his  class,  and 
used  his  power  with  such  consummate  skill,  with 
such  natural  adroitness,  that  they  were  enthusiastic 
in  their  esteem  of  his  admirable  gifts,  and  in  their 
attachment  to  his  person.  In  whatever  circumstances 
he  met  them,  he  caused  them  to  feel  easy  and  gratified. 
They  were  proud  of  his  friendship,  and  of  his  familiar 
though  dignified  intercourse  with  them.  He  had  no 
pedagogical  airs,  no  tutorial  affectation  of  wisdom 
and  dignity ;  but  he  had  authority,  and  received  the 
willing  tribute  of  respect.  In  his  own  room,  especially, 
they  found  him  teacher  and  companion  so  happily 
combined,  that  every  visit  created  a  desire  for  its 
repetition.  When  his  one  year's  service  was  closed, 
he  left  the  class  undivided  in  their  attachment  to  him, 
and  expressing  the  deepest  regret  that  they  could  not 
be  favored  longer  with  his  instructions." 

The  year  thus  spent  at  Dartmouth  brought  him 
into  closer  connection  with  a  society  of  scholars,  and 
led  him  along  in  friendly  emulation  with  many  who 
afterwards  became  eminent  in  their  professions.  He 
reviewed  his  studies  and  consolidated  his  knowledge. 
He  formed  attachments  which  were  never  broken, 
and  which  exerted  a  very  important  influence  on  his 
future  prosperity  and  happiness.  The  college  was 
resting,  and  trying  to  recover  strength  after  the 
severe  and  protracted  struggle  with  the  State.  The 
President  was  absent  for  a  considerable  part  of 
the  year,  having  spent  the  winter  and  spring  at  the 
South,  in  the  vain  hope  of  arresting  a  disease  fastened 


26  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS   CHOATE.  [CHAP.  L 

upon  him  by  his  labors  and  exposures  in  behalf  of  the 
institution.  From  this  long  and  wearisome  journey 
he  returned  only  to  die  at  home  a  few  weeks  before 
the  Commencement  of  1820.  -This  was  a  sorrow 
which  affected  Mr.  Choate  very  deeply.  Between 
the  older  officer  and  the  younger  had  grown  up 
very  tender  relations  founded  on  mutual  respect  and 
love.1 

The  following  letter  from  Dr.  Thomas  Sewall,  of 
Washington,  a  brother-in-law  of  Mr.  Choate,  is  inter- 
esting in  itself,  and  was  probably  not  without  influence 
on  the  mind  of  the  young  student  just  about  to  begin 
the  study  of  his  profession :  — 

"  WASHINGTON  CITY,  March  18,  1820. 
"  Saturday  evening. 

"DEAR  BROTHER  RUFUS,  —  I  enclose  to  you  the  'Intel- 
ligencer '  of  this  day,  containing  the  speech  of  Barbour  of 
the  Senate,'2  late  governor  of  Virginia,  a  man  of  fine  talents, 
and  probably  the  greatest  orator  in  Congress.  The  closing 
part  of  the  speech  I  heard,  and  it  was  overwhelming  to  all 
who  heard  it.  He  is  about  as  large  a  man  as  Webster,  is  as 
dark  complexioned,  and  has  much  of  the  same  commanding 
air.  I  shall  endeavor  to  send  you  the  speeches  of  Pinkriey, 
Otis,  Bun-ill,  Clay,  Lowndes,  Storrs,  Sergeant,  and  Barbour 
(of  the  House),  as  soon  as  they  are  printed ;  these,  with  one 
or  two  others,  comprising  nearly  all  that  has  been  said  on 
the  subject. 

"  The  Supreme  Court  adjourned  yesterday  sine  die. 
Webster  left  nearly  a  fortnight  since,  as  he  found  a  great 
part  of  his  business  could  not  come  on  this  Term.  While 
here  he  showed  me  many  marks  of  distinguished  friendship, 
which  I  had  no  right  to  expect.  He  spent  many  hours  with 

1  An  affectionate  estimate  of  President  Brown's  character  and 
services  will  be  found  given  by  Mr.  Choate  in  a  letter  to  Rev.  Dr. 
Sprague,  published  in  "  The  Annals  of  the  American  Pulpit." 

2  James  Barbour,  Senator  from  Virginia,  1815-1825 ;  Secretary  of 
War,  1825 ;  Minister  to  England,  1828. 


1799-1830.J        LETTER  FROM  DR.  THOMAS  SEWALL.       27 

me  in  my  study,  walked  and  rode  round  the  city  with  me 
repeatedly,  and  called  on  private  families,  &c.  .  .  .  One 
particular  instance  of  his  notice  I  will  mention,  but  not  to  be 
communicated  to  any  one  at  Hanover  but  Washington,1  on 
any  account.  While  here  he  sat,  by  my  suggestion,  to  a 
young  portrait  painter  to  gratify  me  with  the  picture.  This 
unfortunately  was  not  completed,  as  he  left  unexpectedly, 
and  before  he  anticipated.  It  is  however  the  exact  outlines 
of  Webster,  giving  all  the  prominent  characters  of  his  face. 
I  would  not  part  with  it  for  any  thing.  Every  one  knows  it 
instantly.  He  paid  the  painter  himself.  When  he  comes  to 
the  city  again  he  has  promised  that  it  shall  be  completed. 

"  While  here  I  talked  with  him  respecting  the  advantages 
of  the  Law  School  you  referred  to  in  your  letter.  His 
opinion  I  will  at  some  future  time  communicate,  unless  you 
get  it  from  his  own  lips.  He  wished,  when  I  wrote  you,  that 
I  would  request  you  to  visit  him  at  the  next  vacation.  This 
I  hope  you  will  do,  and  stay,  as  by  his  request,  a  few  days 
with  him. 

"  I  am  aware,  Ruf  us,  that  you  have  too  much  independence 
to  be  greatly  influenced  in  your  future  course  by  the  advice 
of  any  one,  yet  you  have,  I  am  persuaded,  too  much  candor 
to  be  offended  if  I  tell  you  what  my  feelings  and  opinions 
are  on  this  subject,  —  a  subject  deeply  interesting  to  me  as 
well  as  to  your  other  friends. 

"  Nothing  could  be  half  so  gratifying  to  me  as  to  have 
you,  after  the  expiration  of  your  year  at  Hanover,  commence 
the  study  of  Divinity  at  Andover,  could  you  bring  your  feel- 
ings to  such  a  course.  In  this  I  look  to  the  end,  which  would 
be  happy  to  yourself  and  glorious  to  the  Church.  I  am  not 
without  a  strong  hope  that  whatever  you  engage  in  for  the 
present,  you  will  finally  be  called  to  devote  those  talents 
which  God  has  distinguished  you  with  in  so  eminent  a  degree, 
to  that  cause  which  will  ultimately  swallow  up  all  others. 

•'  If  you  cannot  come  to  this  for  the  present,  let  me  advise 
you  to  commence  the  study  of  the  Law  without  the  loss  of  any 
further  time  than  will  carry  you  to  the  next  Commencement. 
With  respect  to  the  place  of  study  I  will  here  make  several 
remarks.  I  hope  to  have  my  wife  and  little  son  here  the 
next  autumn.  I  need  not  tell  you  that  nothing  could  add 
more  to  her  happiness  and  mine  than  to  have  you  with  us, 

1  Washington  Choate,  a  younger  brother  of  Rufus. 


28  MEMOIR   OF   RUFUS   CHOATE.  [CHAP.  I. 

and  I  doubt  whether  there  is  any  place  where  you  would 
pursue  your  studies  to  greater  advantage  than  at  Washington. 
Yet,  as  by  bringing  my  family  here  I  shall  take  from  our 
friends  at  Essex  two  darling  objects,  I  ought  perhaps  to  be 
willing  to  be  deprived  of  your  society  here  for  the  sake  of 
having  you  placed  near,  and  where  you  can  visit  them  often, 
especially  as  we  shall  here  be  surrounded  by  the  best  of 
friends  and  acquaintances,  while  the  family  at  Essex  will  be 
forsaken  and  surrounded  by  wolves  and  tigers  on  every  side  ! 
Besides,  Washington  will  be  at  college,  and  the  family,  of 
course,  quite  alone.  Taking  these  and  many  other  things 
into  view,  I  must  advise  that  you  commence  your  course 
with  Webster.  Him  you  will  find  a  different  man  from  what 
you  can  have  an  idea  of  without  a  more  intimate  acquaint- 
ance ;  a  friend,  a  companion,  and  equal.  I  am  fully  satisfied 
that  you  will  find  his  office  a  better  place  to  become  an  active 
lawyer,  politician,  and  man  of  usefulness  than  at  Cambridge. 

"  It  will  be  in  my  power  to  introduce  you  to  many  men  in 
Boston  whose  society  you  will  value  highly,  besides  intro- 
ducing you  to  a  literary  club  embracing  all  the  science  of  that 
town  and  vicinity.  At  any  rate,  I  anticipate  much  pleasure 
should  it  please  Providence  to  spare  my  life,  in  seeing  you 
here,  if  not  the  next  fall,  at  some  future  period.  Your  funds, 
I  suppose,  must  be  nearly  exhausted.  At  Cambridge  you 
will  be  at  great  expense.  With  Webster,  I  can  get  you  in 
on  any  terms.  I  should  like  to  know  if  there  was  ever  any 
thing  of  the  trial  published.1  I  have  not  been  able  to  learn 
that  there  was. 

"  Judge  Story  was  very  polite  to  me  while  here ;  called 
on  me,  &c.  I  used  to  send  him  the  'Centinel,'  which  I 
take.  Do  write  soon  and  often.  Keep  this  letter  between 
you  and  Washington  .  .  . 

"  With  love  to  all  who  feel  enough  interest  in  my  welfare 
to  inquire  after  me,  and  with  much  love  to  Washington, 
"  Your  brother, 

"  THOMAS  SEWALL." 

Whether  in  accordance  with  these  suggestions  he 
endeavored  to  secure   a  place  in  the  office  of  Mr. 
Webster,  is  not  known ;  but  we  find  that  soon  after 
1  Probably  the  Dartmouth  College  case. 


1790-1830.]  STUDIES   WITH  MR.   WIRT.  29 

leaving  Dartmouth  in  the  summer  of  1820,  he  entered 
the  Law  School  at  Cambridge,  presided  over,  at  that 
time,  by  Chief  Justice  Parker,  and  Asahel  Stearns. 
From  them  he  gained  his  first  insight  into  the  meth- 
ods, objects,  and  morality  of  the  law.  Still  yearning, 
however,  for  a  wider  view  of  affairs,  and  influenced, 
perhaps,  by  the  wishes  of  his  brother-in-law,  Dr.  Sew- 
all,  he  entered,  in  1821,  the  office  of  Mr.  Wirt,  then 
Attorney-General  of  the  United  States,  and  in  the 
ripeness  of  his  powers  and  fame.  The  year  at  Wash- 
ington, although  he  did  not  see  so  much  as  he  wished 
of  Mr.  Wirt,  who  was  confined  for  a  considerable 
portion  of  the  time  by  indisposition,  was  not  without 
considerable  advantage.  It  enlarged  his  knowledge 
of  public  men  and  of  affairs.  He  became  familiar 
with  the  public  administration.  He  spent  some  hours 
almost  daily  in  the  library  of  Congress.  He  began  to 
comprehend  still  more  fully  the  dignity  of  his  chosen 
profession.  He  saw  Marshall  upon  the  bench,  "and 
heard  Pinkney  in  the  Senate,  and  in  his  last  speech 
in  court,  and  thenceforth  became  more  than  ever  an 
admirer  of  the  genius  of  those  eminent  men.  Pinkney 
he  thought  the  most  consummate  master  of  a  manly 
and  exuberant  spoken  English  that  he  ever  heard, 
and  he  always  kept  him  in  view  as  a  sort  of  model 
advocate. 

Among  the  college  friends  of  Mr.  Choate,  to  whom 
he  was  strongly  attached,  was  James  Marsh,  whose 
early  attainments  and  wide  culture  gave  promise  of 
his  future  eminence,  and  who  already  had  pushed  his 
studies  into  the  then  almost  unknown  regions  of  Ger- 
man metaphysics.  To  him  Mr.  Choate  writes  from 
Washington :  — 


30  MEMOIR  OF   RUFUS   CHOATE.  [CHAP.  I. 

To  Mr.  JAMES  MARSH,  Theological  Seminary,  Andover,  Mass. 

"  Aug.  11, 1821. 

"I  take  great  shame  to  myself  for  neglecting  so  long  to 
answer  your  letter,  and  beg  you  will  explain  it  anyhow  but 
on  the  supposition  that  I  have  meant  to  requite  your  own 
remissness  in  kind.  My  remissness,  you  might  know,  if  you 
would  think  a  moment,  is  never  so  intentional  a  matter  as 
that  comes  to ;  '  idleness  and  irresolution  '  will  account  for  it 
always ;  and  since  you,  whose  fine  habits  are  the  envy  of  all 
your  literary  friends,  set  the  example,  'idleness  and  irreso- 
lution' I  shall  plead  without  evasion  and  without  remorse 
now  and  henceforward  for  ever.  But  I  wonder  if  I  shall  act 
quite  as  wisely  in  pleading,  too,  other  matters  of  apology  ? 
in  telling  you  for  instance,  that  your  letter  and  my  own 
reflections,  since  I  read  it,  have  assured  me  of  what  I  was 
suspicious  of  before,  though  I  never  owned  it  to  myself,  and 
pretended  not  to  believe  it,  that  I  can  really  walk  no  longer 
'  within  that  magic  circle,'  where  we  used  to  disport  ourselves. 
.  .  .  This  I  own  I  am  ashamed  of,  but  that  ocean  of  German 
theology  and  metaphysics  (not  to  say  criticism),  —  ah,  Marsh, 
you  may  swim  on  alone  in  that  if  you  will,  and  much  good 
may  it  do  you !  I  never  could  swim  in  it  myself  at  any  rate 
(it  was  like  being  a  yard  behind  a  cuttle-fish),  and  have  long 
since  made  up  my  mind  that  any  smaller  fry  than  a  leviathan 
stand  no  sort  of  chance  in  its  disturbed,  muddy,  unfathomable 
waters.  On  the  whole,  however,  this  is  no  reason  at  all  why 
we  should  cease  to  be  very  warm  friends,  and  in  our  way, 
very  punctual  correspondents,  and  so  let  me  thank  you  at  last 
heartily,  for  writing  such  a  full  and  interesting  letter,  and  beg 
you  to  repeat  your  kindness  very  frequently  till  we  shake 
hands  again  in  your  own  cell  at  Andover,  or  in  some  one  of 
the  gay  halls  of  our  endeared  Hanover.  Our  correspondence 
will  certainly  answer  one  end,  and  that  I  hope  we  both  think, 
no  inconsiderable  one,  —  it  will  bring  us  often  into  each 
other's  thoughts  and  presence,  and  keep  green  in  our  memories 
the  days,  well  spent  and  happy  and  dear  to  us  both,  of  our 
literary  intimacy.  We  go  on  together  no  longer ;  our  paths 
are  widely  asunder  already,  to  diverge  still  more  at  every 
step.  But  for  this  very  reason  let  us  carefully  cherish  a 
kindly  remembrance  of  each  other,  and  of  the  time  when  our 
studies,  tastes,  and  objects  of  ambition  were  one ;  and  the 
'  same  intense  first  love  of  a  new  and  fascinating  department 


1799-1830-1  DEATH   OF   HIS   BROTHER.  31 

of  literature  burned  in  both  our  bosoms.  I  darkly  gather 
from  what  you  tell  me,  that  you  are  plunging  still  more  and 
more  deeply  into  that  incomprehensible  science  in  which  you 
are  to  live  and  to  be  remembered,  and  are  contriving  every  day 
to  detect  in  it  some  before-unsuspected  relation  to  those  other 
branches  of  learning  with  which  a  less  acute,  or  less  enthu- 
siastic eye  would  never  see  it  to  have  the  loosest  connection. 
...  I  am  sadly  at  a  loss  for  books  here,  but  I  sit  three  days 
every  week  in  the  large  Congressional  library,  and  am  study- 
ing our  own  extensive  ante-revolutionary  history,  and  reading 
your  favorite  Gibbon.  The  only  classic  I  can  get  is  Ovid ; 
and  while  I  am  about  it,  let  me  say,  too,  that  I  read  every 
day  some  chapters  in  an  English  Bible.  I  miss  extremely 
the  rich  opportunities  we  enjoyed  formerly,  and  which  you 
still  enjoy,  but  I  hope  I  shall  at  last  begin  to  think. 

"  Most  truly  yours,  R.  CHOATE." 

From  his  residence  at  the  capital,  and  the  abundant 
advantages  which  it  offered  to  a  mind  so  observant  as 
his,  he  was  suddenly  called  away  before  fully  complet- 
ing his  first  year,  by  an  event  which  affected  him  with 
the  deepest  sorrow.  His  brother  Washington,  his 
early  playmate  and  fellow-student,  younger  than  him- 
self by  nearly  four  years,  entered  Dartmouth  College 
the  year  that  Rufus  graduated.  Unlike  his  older 
brother  in  personal  appearance,  he  resembled  him  in 
many  intellectual  and  moral  qualities,  and  gave  prom- 
ise of  equal  distinction.  He  was  a  tall  and  slender 
young  man,  of  a  fair  complexion,  with  light  hair  and 
light  blue  eyes.  Entering  college  with  a  compara- 
tively thorough  preparation,  he  at  once  became,  by 
universal  and  cheerful  acknowledgment,  the  leader  of 
his  class,  and  yet  he  was  the  most  gentle,  modest,  and 
unobtrusive  of  them  all.  The  few  papers  which  he 
left  behind  him,  to  which  I  have  had  access,  indicate 
unusual  scholarship  and  a  remarkable  extent  of  attain- 
ment in  languages  and  modern  literature.  They  show 


32  MEMOIR   OF   RUFUS   CHOATE.  [CHAP.  I. 

also  uncommonly  pure  and  deep  religious  sensibilities. 
Kind,  companionable,  and  true,  loving  and  beloved, 
he  had  already  consecrated  his  life  to  a  service  in 
which  none  could  have  fairer  hopes  of  eminence  and 
usefulness,  but  upon  which  he  was  not  permitted  to 
enter.  Having  taught  school  near  home  during  the 
winter  of  his  Junior  year,  he  was  attacked  by  the 
scarlet  fever  on  the  very  day  of  his  proposed  return 
to  college,  and  after  a  brief  illness,  died  Feb.  27, 
1822,  at  the  age  of  nineteen.  During  his  sickness 
his  thoughts  turned  with  unwavering  and  intense 
affection  towards  his  absent  brother.  He  began  to 
dictate  a  letter  to  him  on  the  morning  of  the  day  on 
which  he  died.  "  There  is  one  subject,  Rufus,"  he 
said,  "  upon  which  we  must  not  be  dumb  so  that  we 
speak  not,  nor  deaf  so  that  we  hear  not,  nor  blind 
so  that  we  may  not  see.  It  is  not  a  subject  upon 

which" The  sentence  was  never  completed.    Not 

the  letter,  but  the  news  of  his  death,  was  borne  to 
Washington,  and  it  proved  almost  too  much  for  the 
elder  brother  to  endure.  He  sought  out  and  re-read 
the  old  books  which  they  had  studied  together,  while 
the  floodgates  of  grief  were  opened,  and  he  refused 
to  be  comforted.  His  studies  at  Washington  were 
abandoned,  and  he  returned  for  a  while  to  the  seclu- 
sion of  Essex.  Some  time  afterwards  he  received 
the  following  testimonial  from  Mr.  Wirt,  —  the  italics 
being  his :  — 

"  WASHINGTON,  Nov.  2,  1822. 

"  Mr.  Rufus  Choate  read  law  in  my  office  and  under  my 
direction  for  about  twelve  months.  He  evinced  great  power 
of  application,  and  displayed  a  force  and  discrimination  of 
mind  from  which  I  formed  the  most  favorable  presages  of  his 
future  distinction  in  his  profession.  His  deportment  was  in 


1799-1830.]  ADMISSION   TO   THE   BAR.  33 

all  respects  so  correct  as  to  entitle  him  to  respect,  and  he  car- 
ried with  him  my  best  wishes  for  his  professional  eminence, 
prosperity,  and  happiness. 

"WM.    WlRT." 

After  remaining  for  a  time  at  home,  he  entered  his 
name  in  the  office  of  Mr.  Asa  Andrews,  of  Ipswich,  and 
subsequently  continued  his  studies  with  Judge  Cum- 
mins, a  distinguished  lawyer  of  Salem.  He  was  finally 
admitted  an  Attorney  of  the  Court  of  Common  Pleas, 
in  September,  1823,  and  two  years  later  was  enrolled 
as  Attorney  of  the  Supreme  Court. 

It  has  been  generally  stated  that  Mr.  Choate  first 
opened  his  office  in  South  Danvers,  —  and  this  is  sub- 
stantially true.  But  in  fact,  he  first  put  up  his  sign 
in  Salem.  It  remained  up,  however,  but  one  night, 
when  his  natural  modesty,  or  self-distrust,  led  him  to 
remove  it  to  Danvers,  a  little  farther  from  the  courts 
and  from  direct  rivalry  with  the  eminent  lawyers  who 
engrossed  the  business  and  controlled  the  opinions  of 
that  distinguished  bar. 

The  four  or  five  years  that  he  spent  in  Danvers  were 
the  years  of  solicitude  and  hope  which  can  never  come 
twice  to  a  professional  man,  and  which  endear  to  him 
the  place  where  his  first  successes  are  achieved,  and 
the  men  from  whom  he  receives  his  first  encourage- 
ment. He  regarded  no  other  place  with  exactly  the 
feelings  which  he  entertained  for  Danvers ;  and  the 
kindness  seemed  to  be  fully  reciprocated.  During  his 
short  residence  there  he  twice  represented  the  town  in 
the  Legislature,  and  for  one  year  was  a  member  of 
the  Senate. 

Not  long  after  opening  his  office,  and  perhaps  when 
under  some  feeling  of  discouragement,  he  thus  closes 

3 


34  MEMOIR   OF   RUFUS   CHOATE.  [CHAP.  I. 

a  letter  to  his  friend  Mr.  Marsh,  then  tutor  in  Hamp- 
den  Sydney  College,  Virginia  :  — 

"  There  is  a  new  novel  by  the  author  of  '  Valerius,'  that  a 
friend  of  mine  here  says  is  very  clever,  but  I  haven't  got  it 
yet.  He  seems,  from  that  specimen,  at  any  rate,  to  be  a  man 
of  elegant  and  thorough  studies,  and,  without  any  such  fertility 
and  versatility  as  that  other,  —  our  Shakespeare,  —  might  hit 
out  a  single  performance  of  pretty  formidable  pretensions  to 
equality  in  some  great  features.  How  wretchedly  adapted  is 
our  American  liberal  education  and  our  subsequent  course  of 
life,  to  form  and  mature  a  mind  of  so  much  depth,  taste,  and 
beautiful  enlargement.  How  vulgar  and  untaught  we  gen- 
erally are  with  all  our  unquestionable  natural  capacity.  ...  I 
don't  remember  to  have  ever  looked  upon  the  coming  in  of  the 
first  month  of  winter,  with  a  more  prostrating  sense  of  mis- 
erableness,  than  presses  upon  me  every  moment  that  I  am  not 
hard  at  study.  Cold  is  itself  an  intolerable  evil,  and  it  comes 
with  such  a  dreary  accompaniment  of  whistling  wind  and  fall- 
ing leaf,  that  '  I  would  not  live  alway '  if  these  were  the 
terms  on  which  we  were  to  hold  out.  I  really  think  that  the 
time  of  life,  when  the  nakedness  arid  desolation  of  a  fast 
darkening  November  could  be  softened  and  relieved  by  blend- 
ing in  it  fancy,  romance,  association,  and  hope,  is  gone  by 
with  me,  and  I  actually  tremble  to  see  lifting  up  from  one 
season  of  the  year  after  another,  from  one  character  after 
another,  and  from  life  itself,  even  a  life  of  study,  ambition, 
and  social  intercourse,  that  fair  woven  cover,  which  is  spread 
upon  so  much  blackness  hollowness,  and  commonplace.  But 
towards  you  my  feelings  change  not,  and  so  of  about  five  more 
persons  only  whom  1  have  ever  known.  —  Begging  you  to 
excuse  every  thing  amiss, 

"Yours,  R.   C. 

"DANVERS,  Nov.  23,  1823." 

Mr.  Choate's  immediate  success,  although  as  great 
as  could  be  anticipated,  was  not  particularly  striking, 
and  during  the  first  two  or  three  years,  in  some  seasons 
of  despondency,  he  seriously  debated  whether  he  should 
not  throw  up  his  profession,  and  seek  some  other 
method  of  support.  In  the  mean  time,  in  1825,  he  was 


1709-1830.]  HIS   MARRIAGE.  35 

united  in  marriage  with  Helen  Olcott,  daughter  of 
Mills  Olcott,  Esq.,  of  Hanover,  N.  H.  Few  men  have 
been  more  widely  known  in  New  Hampshire,  or  more 
deeply  respected  than  Mr.  Olcott.  He  was  a  person  of 
remarkable  sagacity,  of  great  wisdom  in  the  conduct  of 
affairs,  magnanimous  and  generous,  eminently  cour- 
teous, dignified  and  kind,  one  of  the  few  to  whom  the 
old-fashioned  name  of  gentleman  could  be  applied 
without  restriction  or  reserve.  This  congenial  alli- 
ance was  one  of  the  many  felicitous  circumstances  of 
Mr.  Choate's  early  career.  It  brought  him  sympathy, 
encouragement,  and  support.  It  not  only  gave  him 
a  new  stimulus  to  labor,  but  proved  in  all  respects 
most  congenial  with  his  tastes,  and  favorable  to  his 
social  aspirations.  Although  he  did  not  at  first  escape 
the  fate  of  most  young  lawyers,  the  number  of  whose 
clients  is  not  always  equal  to  their  wishes,  yet  his 
unwearied  diligence,  his  fidelity,  and  the  fame  of  his 
eloquence  and  skill,  soon  brought  to  him  a  full  share 
of  the  business  of  the  town  and  country.  He  early 
formed  the  habit  of  doing  for  his  client  every  thing  that 
the  case  required  irrespective  of  reward.  Before  a 
justice  of  the  peace,  in  an  office  not  larger  than  a  shoe- 
maker's shop,  in  defence  of  some  petty  offender,  he 
poured  forth  the  same  wealth  of  words  and  illustra- 
tions, of  humor  and  wit,  and,  in  its  measure,  of  learn- 
ing and  argument,  which  afterwards  delighted  the 
Supreme  Court  and  the  Senate.  Indeed,  throughout 
his  life,  he  never  reserved  his  brilliant  arguments  for 
a  suitable  audience.  He  early  made  it  a  rule,  for  the 
sake  of  increasing  his  power  as  an  advocate,  to  argue 
at  full  length  every  case  he  tried,  and  to  do  his  best  on 
every  occasion.  He  as  resolutely  determined  to  shrink 


36  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS   CHOATE.  [CHAP.  I. 

from  no  labor  which  might  be  necessary  to  the  perfect 
completion  of  whatever  he  undertook.  In  a  famous 
dog  case  at  Beverly,  it  was  said  that  "  he  treated  the 
dog  as  though  he  were  a  lion  or  an  elephant,  and  the 
crabbed  old  squire  with  the  compliment  and  consider- 
ation of  a  chief  justice  !  " 

On  one  very  stormy  night  during  his  residence  in 
Danvers,  he  was  called  upon,  at  a  late  hour,  to  draw 
the  will  of  a  d}ring  man  who  lived  several  miles  dis- 
tant. He  went,  performed  the  service,  and  returned 
home.  But  after  going  to  bed,  as  he  lay  revolving  in 
his  mind  each  provision  of  the  paper  he  had  so  rapidly 
prepared,  there  flashed  across  his  memory  an  omission 
that  might  possibly  cause  the  testator's  intention  to  be 
misunderstood.  He  sprang  from  his  bed  and  began 
dressing  himself  rapidly,  to  the  great  surprise  of  his 
wife,  only  answering  her  inquiries  by  saying  that  he 
had  done  what  must  be  undone,  and  in  the  thick  of 
the  storm  rode  again  to  his  dying  client,  explained  the 
reason  of  his  return,  and  drew  a  codicil  to  the  will 
which  made  every  thing  sure.  He  related  this  in 
after-life  in  illustration  of  a  remark,  that  sometimes, 
years  after  a  case  had  been  tried,  he  would  feel  a 
pang  of  reproach  that  he  had  not  urged  some  argu- 
ment which  at  that  moment  flashed  across  his  mind. 
He  always  fought  his  lost  cases  over  again,  to  see  if 
he  could  find  any  argument  whereby  he  might  have 
gained  them.  Nor  did  he  at  this  time  neglect  his 
purely  literary  studies.  A  literary  society,  already 
existing  in  the  town,  found  in  him  an  active  and  val- 
uable member.  The  lecture  on  "  The  Waverley 
Novels"  was  then  prepared.  He  also  delivered  two 
4th  of  July  orations,  one  before  the  Danvers  Light 


1799-1830.]  OPINION  OF  JUDGE   SHAW.  37 

Infantry,  of  which  corps  he  became  a  member,  and 
one  before  the  citizens  at  large. 

In  the  mean  time  his  professional  fame  was  spread- 
ing. His  unique  and  vigorous  eloquence,  his  assidu- 
ity, care,  and  fidelity  to  his  clients,  adorned  with  a 
modesty  as  singular  as  it  was  beautiful,  gained  him 
many  friends  and  more  admirers. 

An  extract  from  a  letter  of  Chief  Justice  Shaw  will 
show  how  his  reputation  gradually  increased  at  the 
bar :  "  I  had  an  opportunity  to  see  Mr.  Choate,  and 
witness  his  powers  as  an  advocate  very  early,  when 
he  first  opened  an  office  in  Danvers,  and  when  I  had 
scarcely  heard  his  name  mentioned.  It  happened, 
that  in  consequence  of  one  or  more  large  failures  in 
Danvers,  a  number  of  litigated  suits  were  commenced 
between  various  parties,  all  of  which  —  to  avoid  de- 
lay and  obtain  a  more  early  decision  I  suppose  —  were 
referred  to  the  late  Hon.  Samuel  Hoar,  of  Concord, 
and  myself,  as  arbitrators.  We  attended  at  the  court- 
house in  Salem  and  heard  them,  I  think,  in  June,  1826. 
Mr.  Choate  appeared  as  counsel  in  several  of  them. 
As  he  was  previously  unknown  to  us  by  reputation, 
and  regarding  him  as  we  did,  as  a  young  lawyer  just 
commencing  practice  in  a  country  town,  we  were 
much  and  very  agreeably  surprised  at  the  display  of 
his  powers.  It  appeared  to  me  that  he  then  mani- 
fested much  of  that  keen,  legal  discrimination,  of 
the  acuteness,  skill,  and  comprehensive  view  of  the 
requirements  of  his  case,  in  the  examination  of  wit- 
nesses, and  that  clearness  and  force  in  presenting 
questions  both  of  fact  and  law,  by  which  he  was  so 
much  distinguished  in  his  subsequent  brilliant  profes- 
sional career.  He  soon  after  this  removed  to  Salem, 


38  MEMOIR   OF  RUFUS   CHOATE.  [CHAP.  I. 

and  in  a  short  time  became  extensively  and  favorably 
known,  as  a  jurist  and  advocate." 

Salem  and  Danvers  were  then,  as  now,  closely  con- 
nected. The  first  case  in  which  he  professionally 
appeared  in  the  former  city  was  in  defence  of  a 
number  of  young  men  of  respectable  families,  charged 
with  riotous  proceedings  at  a  low  dance-house.  I 
cannot  do  so  well  as  to  take  the  account  furnished  to 
the  "  Salem  Register "  by  one  of  the  distinguished 
members  of  the  Essex  bar.1  "  The  case  excited  much 
interest  from  the  character  and  position  of  some  of  the 
parties  implicated,  and  especially  from  the  fame,  even 
then,  of  the  young  advocate.  He  had  before  that 
time,  I  believe,  appeared  before  some  of  the  magis- 
trates of  Danvers.  .  .  .  Under  these  circumstances  it 
is  not  strange  that  when  the  '  Mumford  Case,'  as 
it  was  called,  came  up  in  Salem,  —  a  somewhat  larger 
and  broader  theatre,  —  a  more  diversified  audience, 
—  shipmasters,  old  salts,  supercargoes,  clerks,  mer- 
chants, and  the  various  men  of  the  various  callings 
of  the  chief  town  of  the  county,  —  an  interest  and 
a  feeling  altogether  unusual  should  have  been  excited 
on  the  occasion.  It  was  so.  The  place  where  Justice 
Savage  held  his  court  was  a  large  room  on  the  second 
floor  of  a  substantial  building,  in  one  of  the  principal 
streets,  and  it  was  immediately  densely  packed  with 
all  the  varieties  of  the  population.  The  trial  com- 
menced and  proceeded ;  witness  after  witness  was 
called,  and  all  subjected  to  the  severest  and  most 
rigid  cross-examination  by  the  young  counsel.  Now 
and  then  a  passage  at  arms  with  the  counsel  for  the 
government  (a  gentleman  of  very  considerable  expe- 
1  Hon.  Asahel  Huntington. 


1799-1830.]     REMINISCENCES  BY  MR.  HUNTINGTON.         39 

rience  in  criminal  courts,  and  of  some  fifteen  or 
twenty  years'  standing  at  the  bar)  would  come  up  to 
give  variety  to  the  scene  ;  and  now  and  then  a  gentle, 
most  gracious,  and  reverential  rencontre  with  the 
honorable  court  would  intervene, .and  again  a  hard 
contest  with  some  perverse  and  obstinate  witness 
would  relieve  the  tedium  of  the  protracted  examina- 
tion. Some  of  the  immediate  auditors  would  get 
overheated,  and  then  work  themselves  out  into  the 
fresh  air,  and  report  the  proceedings,  —  the  sayings 
and  doings  of  the  young  lawyer,  —  what  he  said  to 
his  antagonist,  Esq.  T.,  or  to  the  honorable  court,  or 
this  or  that  fugitive  comment  on  the  witness,  or  case, 
as  the  trial  proceeded  (an  inveterate  habit  of  Mr. 
Choate's,  in  all  his  early  practice,  and  no  court  or 
counsel  were  or  could  be  quick  enough  to  prevent  it, 
—  it  would  breathe  out,  this  or  that  comment,  or 
word,  or  suggestion). 

"  In  this  way,  and  by  such  means,  the  fame  of  the 
case  extended,  while  the  trial  was  in  progress,  some 
two  or  three  days,  in  the  office  of  a  police  justice ! 
Men  of  the  various  classes  would  assemble  around  the 
court-room,  in  the  entry,  on  the  stairs,  outside,  to 
hear  the  fresh  reports,  and  so  things  continued  till 
the  argument  came,  and  then  there  was  a  rush  for 
every  available  point  and  spot  within  or  without  the 
compass  of  the  speaker's  voice,  and  the  people  liter- 
ally hung  with  delighted  and  most  absorbed  attention 
on  his  lips.  It  was  a  new  revelation  to  this  audience. 
They  had  heard  able  and  eloquent  men  before  in 
courts  of  justice  and  elsewhere.  Essex  had  had  for 
years  and  generations  an  able,  learned,  and  eloquent 
bar ;  there  had  been  many  giants  among  us,  some  of 


40  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS  CHOATE.  [CHAP.  I. 

national  fame  and  standing,  but  no  such  giant  as  this 
had  appeared  before,  —  such  words,  such  epithets, 
such  involutions,  such  close  and  powerful  logic  all  the 
while,  —  such  grace  and  dignity,  such  profusion  and 
waste  even  of  every  thing  beautiful  and  lovely !  No, 
not  waste,  he  never  wasted  a  word.  How  he  dignified 
that  Court,  —  how  he  elevated  its  high  functions, 
with  what  deference  did  he  presume  to  say  a  word, 
under  the  protection,  and,  as  he  hoped,  with  the 
approving  sanction  of  that  high  tribunal  of  justice, 
in  behalf  of  his  unfortunate  (infelicitous,  from  the 
circumstances  in  which  they  were  placed)  clients !  I 
could  give  no  word  or  sentence  of  this  speech.  I  did 
not  even  hear  it,  but  I  heard  much  about  it,  and  all 
accounts  agreed  in  representing  it  as  an  extraordinary 
and  wholly  matchless  performance.  They  had  never 
heard  the  like  before,  or  any  thing  even  approaching 
it,  for  manner  and  substance.  It  was  a  new  school  of 
rhetoric,  oratory,  and  logic,  and  of  all  manner  of 
diverse  forces,  working,  however,  steadily  and  irre- 
sistibly in  one  direction  to  accomplish  the  speaker's 
purpose  and  object.  The  feeling  excited  by  this  first 
speech  of  Mr.  Choate  in  Salem  was  one  of  great  admi- 
ration and  delight.  All  felt  lifted  up  by  his  themes. 
.  .  .  And  all  were  prepared  to  welcome  him,  when, 
a  few  years  afterwards,  he  took  up  his  abode  here, 
after  the  elevation  of  his  old  friend  and  teacher, 
Judge  Cummins,  to  the  bench  of  the  Court  of  Com- 
mon Pleas." 


1830-1840.]  REMOVAL  TO   SALEM.  41 


CHAPTER    II. 

i 

1830-1840. 

Removal  to  Salem  —  The  Essex  Bar  —  Successes  —  Appearance  — 
Counsel  in  the  Knapp  Case  —  Studies  —  Letter  to  President  Marsh 
—  Elected  to  Congress  —  Commonplace  Book  —  Letter  to  President 
Marsh  —  Enters  Congress  —  Speeches  on  Revolutionary  Pensions, 
and  on  the  Tariff  —  Letter  to  Dr.  Andrew  Nichols  —  Letters  to 
Professor  George  Bush  —  The  Second  Session  —  Georgia,  and  the 
Missionaries  to  the  Indians  —  Letter  to  Professor  Bush  —  Re-elected 
to  Congress  —  Speech  on  the  Removal  of  the  Deposits  —  Resigns 
his  Seat  —  Removes  to  Boston  —  Lecture  on  the  "  Waverley  Nov- 
els," and  on  "  The  Romance  of  the  Sea  "  —  Death  of  his  Youngest 
Child. 

IN  1828,  Mr.  Choate  removed  to  Salem.  The  Essex 
bar  was  then,  as  it  had  long  been,  distinguished  for 
learning  and  skill.  The  memory  of  Dane  and  Par- 
sons, and  Story  and  Putnam,  was  fresh  and  fragrant ; 
John  Pickering,  Leverett  Saltonstall,  Eben  Mosely, 
David  Cummins,  and  John  Varnum,  were  still  in  full 
practice ;  Caleb  Gushing,  Robert  C.  Rantoul,  and 
others  like  them,  were  making  their  influence  felt  as 
young  men  of  ability  and  ambition.  Mr.  Choate  was 
already  known  for  the  qualities  by  which  he  was 
afterwards  distinguished,  learning,  assiduity,  a  judg- 
ment almost  unerring,  an  ornate  and  exuberant  style, 
and  remarkable  powers  of  advocacy.  Without  as- 
sumption, modest,  deferential,  he  yet  rose  at  once  to 
a  high  position  through  the  combined  force  of  eminent 
talents  and  professional  fidelity. 

He  became  the  leading  counsel  in  criminal  prac- 


42  MEMOIR  OF  BUFUS   CHOATE.  [CHAP.  IL 

tice,  and  it  was  said  that  during  his  residence  in 
Salem  "  no  man  was  convicted  whom  he  defended." 
It  was  however  true  that  he  was  not  eager  to  assume 
a  defence  unless  there  appeared  to  be  a  good  legal 
ground  for  it.  Many  stories  were  current  of  his  inge- 
nuity and  success.  One  of  the  most  characteristic 
was  that  told  of  a  man  by  the  name  of  Jefferds, 
indicted  for  stealing  a  flock  of  turkeys.  "  We  had 
this  case,"  says  a  distinguished  member  of  the  bar, 
to  whose  reminiscences  I  am  already  indebted,1  "at 
every  term  of  the  court  for  a  year  or  more,  and  the 
inquiry  used  to  be  'When  are  the  turkeys  coming 
on?'  The  proofs  accumulated  on  the  part  of  the 
government  at  each  successive  trial.  The  County 
Attorney,  a  man  of  experience  and  ability,  fortified 
himself  on  every  point,  and  piled  proof  upon  proof  at 
each  successive  trial,  but  all  without  success.  The 
voice  of  the  charmer  was  too  powerful  for  his  proofs, 
and  at  each  trial  —  three  or  four  in  all,  I  forget 
which  —  there  was  one  dissenting  juror.  The  case 
at  last  became  famous  in  the  county,  and  in  the  vaca- 
tions of  the  court  the  inquiry  was  often  heard,  '  When 
is  the  turkey  case  coming  on  again  ? '  and  persons  would 
come  from  different  parts  of  the  county  on  purpose 
to  hear  that  trial.  Here  the  theatre  was  still  larger. 
It  was  the  county,  the  native  county,  of  the  already 
distinguished  advocate.  I  heard  those  trials.  One 
was  in  old  Ipswich  in  December,  I  think  —  a  leisure 
season  —  within  four  miles  of  the  spot  where  the 
orator  was  born.  They  came  up  from  Essex,  —  old 
Chebacco, — the  old  and  the  young  men  of  the  town. 
Representatives,  more  or  less,  from  the  whole  body 

1  Hon.  Asahel  Huntington. 


1830-1840.]  THE   TURKEY   CASE.  43 

of  the  county,  were  present,  and  the  court-house  was 
crowded  with  delighted  and  astonished  listeners.  I 
remember  how  they  all  hung  upon  him,  spellbound 
by  his  eloquence,  and  I  verily  believe  these  by- 
standers would  have  acquitted  by  a  majority  vote; 
but  the  jury,  bound  by  their  oaths  to  return  a  true 
verdict  according  to  the  evidence,  would  not  do  so ; 
but  still  there  was  one  dissenting  juror ;  and  finally 
the  prosecuting  officer,  in  utter  despair,  after  the  third 
or  fourth  trial,  entered  a  nolle  prosequi,  and  thus  the 
turkeys  were  turned  or  driven  out  of  court.  I  have 
heard  that  this  alleged  turkey-thief  years  afterward 
called  on  Mr.  Choate  at  his  office  in  Boston.  Mr. 
Choate  did  not  recollect  him,  which  greatly  surprised 
the  old  client,  and  he  said,  '  Why,  Mr.  Choate,  I'm 
the  man  you  plead  so  for  in  the  turkey  case,  when 
they  couldn't  find  any  thing  agin  me.'  There  had 
been  only  forty-four  good  and  true  men  against  him 
(if  there  were  four  trials,  and  I  believe  there  were), 
without  including  twenty-three  more  of  the  grand 
jury ! " 

The  power  of  presenting  things  in  a  ludicrous  aspect, 
by  an  odd  turn  of  expression  or  a  laughable  exagger- 
ation, was  exhibited  at  this  early  period  no  less  decid- 
edly than  in  later  life,  and  was  equally  effective  in 
attracting  attention.  A  mischievous  boy  had  proved 
very  troublesome  to  a  man  by  the  name  of  Adams,  by 
letting  down  the  bars  of  his  pasture,  destroying  the 
fences,  and  similar  misdeeds.  Adams  one  day  caught 
him  at  his  tricks,  and  not  being  in  a  very  humane  or 
careful  mood,  seized  and  swung  him  round  by  the  hair 
of  his  head.  The  father  of  the  boy  prosecuted  Adams, 
and  Mr.  Choate  defended  him.  In  the  course  of  the 


44  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS  CHOATE.          [CHAP.  II. 

argument,  he  characterized  the  act  as  "  a  little  pater- 
nal stretching  of  the  neck,  which  perchance  may  save 
this  fro  ward  lad  from  a  final  and  more  eventful 
stretching."  The  jury  seem  to  have  thought  so  too, 
for  Adams  was  acquitted. 

One  Philip  Finnigan  was  charged  with  stealing 
grease  and  ashes  from  a  Mr.  Nichols.  Finnigan,  on 
getting  the  articles,  said  they  were  for  Mr.  Winches- 
ter, a  noted  soap-manufacturer,  but  Mr.  Winchester, 
coming  up  at  the  moment,  exposed  the  falsehood,  and 
the  articles  were  returned.  Mr.  Choate,  in  the  de- 
fence, contended  that  it  was  only  a  trick  to  defraud 
Mr.  Winchester  out  of  a  customer,  not  to  steal  from 
Mr.  Nichols  ;  "a  shabby  and  ungentlemanly  affair,  to 
be  sure,  but  not  the  crime  he  is  charged  with."  I 
believe  the  defence  was  successful. 

Mr.  Choate  was  at  this  time  in  full  health,  muscular 
and  vigorous,  of  a  pale  or  nearly  colorless  complexion, 
with  a  remarkably  intellectual  countenance.  A  gen- 
tleman, then  a  boy,  who  lived  very  near  him,  has  told 
me  that  he  often  stopped  to  look  at  him  through  the 
window,  as  he  passed  by  the  house  early  in  the  even^ 
ing,  thinking  him  the  handsomest  person  he  had  ever 
seen. 

It  would  be  a  mistake  to  suppose  that  during  these 
years  at  Salem  he  was  mainly  occupied  with  inferior 
cases,  or  interested  in  the  criminal  law  to  the  neglect 
of  other  branches  of  the  profession.  Dependent  as  he 
was  upon  his  own  exertions,  he  probably,  like  other 
young  lawyers,  felt  obliged  to  accept  such  cases  as 
were  offered  to  him.  But  few,  perhaps,  so  early  in 
their  career,  have  had  a  wider  range  of  clients.  One 
of  the  most  important  trials  in  which  he  was  engaged, 


1830-1840.]  THE   KXA1T  CASE.  45 

although  his  name  does  not  appear  on  the  record,  was 
that  of  Knapp,  for  the  murder  of  Capt.  Joseph  White. 
That  celebrated  case  is  familiarly  known.  Capt. 
White  was  found  dead  in  his  bed  on  the  morning  of 
April  7,  1830.  Richard  Crowninshield,  Jr.,  Joseph  J. 
Knapp,  Jr.,  and  John  Francis  Knapp,  were  arrested 
and  charged  with  the  murder.  Crowninshield  com- 
mitted suicide  in  prison,  and  Frank  Knapp  was  put 
on  trial  as  principal,  the  law  then  requiring  that  some 
one  should  be  convicted  as  principal,  before  any  one 
could  be  tried  as  accessory.  He  was  defended  by 
Franklin  Dexter  and  William  H.  Gardiner.  Mr. 
Webster  was  employed,  by  the  relatives  of  Capt. 
White,  to  assist  the  attorney  for  the  government,  and 
besides  him  were  retained  several  other  lawyers,  who 
were  prevented  by  professional  etiquette  from  pub- 
licly acting  in  the  case.  Among  these  was  Mr.  Choate. 
The  trial  came  on  at  a  special  term  of  the  Supreme 
Court  held  at  Salem,  July  20th.  It  continued  with 
some  intermission  till  the  20th  of  August.  The  com- 
munity was  profoundly  shocked  by  the  crime,  and 
watched  the  course  of  the  trial  with  the  deepest  inter- 
est. The  counsel  for  the  government  were  fully 
aware  of  the  responsibility  resting  on  them,  and 
shared  the  agitation  pervading  the  town  and  county. 
Every  evening  they  deliberated  together,  and  I  have 
been  told  by  one  of  them,  that  Mr.  Webster  obviously 
gave  great  heed  to  the  suggestions  of  Mr.  Choate, 
who  was  always  present  and  a  prominent  adviser. 
On  one  occasion  during  the  trial,  an  obscure  but 
important  fact  was  denied  by  the  counsel  for  the 
defence.  They  had  omitted  to  record  it,  and  it  was 
found  to  have  escaped  the  attention  of  every  one 


46  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS  CHOATE.  [CHAI>.  II. 

except  Mr.  Webster  and  Mr.  Choate,  who  were  thus 
able  to  corroborate  each  other. 

During  his  entire  residence  in  Salem,  Mr.  Choate 
was  a  diligent  and  untiring  student  not  only  of  law, 
but  of  the  whole  circle  of  literature,  and  especially  of 
mental  and  political  philosophy.  He  had  laid  a  broad 
foundation,  and  was  erecting  a  lofty  and  beautiful 
superstructure.  He  complained  sometimes  of  his 
desultory  habits,  but  his  friends  saw  how  carefully 
he  methodized  his  knowledge,  and  how  entirely  he 
had  it  at  command.  His  habit  was  to  study  standing 
at  a  high  desk,  with  pen  in  hand,  and  a  manuscript 
book  open  before  him.  These  little  volumes,  or  bro- 
chures,—  for  they  are  generally  a  quire  or  two  of 
letter-paper  stitched  together,  —  are  crowded  with 
facts,  incidents,  principles,  and  reflections,  which 
demonstrate  both  his  diligence  and  thoughtfulness. 
The  equity  practice  of  Massachusetts  was  then  in  an 
unsettled  and  confused  state.  He  devoted  himself 
for  a  while  to  gathering  up  the  statutes  and  reducing 
the  decisions  to  a  regular  code.  The  words  with 
which,  many  years  afterward,  he  briefly  delineated 
the  character  and  attainments  of  a  brother  lawyer, 
may  even  at  this  time  describe  his  own. 

"  His  knowledge  of  the  jurisprudence  of  chancery 
and  his  fondness  for  it,  were  very  remarkable.  Few 
men  of  any  time  of  life  had  studied  it  so  thorough!}'-, 
discerned  so  well  how  it  rose  above,  and  how  it  sup- 
plied the  deficiencies  of  the  common  law,  or  loved  it 
as  truly  and  intelligently.  To  such  a  mind  and  such 
tastes  as  his,  its  comparative  freedom  from  technicali- 
ties, its  regulated  discretion,  and  its  efforts  to  accom- 
plish exact  justice  and  effectual  relief,  possessed  a 


1830-1840.]  STUDIES.  47 

charm,  and  had  a  value  far  beyond  that  of  the  more 
artificial  science,  whose  incompleteness  and  rigidity  it 
supplies  and  ameliorates,  and  whose  certainty  at  last 
reposes  on  the  learning,  or  the  ignorance,  or  the 
humors  of  man. 

"  Beyond  his  profession  he  read  and  he  speculated 
more  variously  and  more  independently  than  most 
men  of  any  profession.  Elegant  general  literature, 
politics,  theology,  in  its  relation  to  the  religion  re- 
vealed in  the  Bible,  and  to  that  philosophy  which 
performs  its  main  achievements  in  conciliating  faith 
with  reason,  —  these  were  his  recreations." 

With  special  care  he  studied  again  the  philosophy 
of  the  Mind,  making  Dr.  Reid's  Essays  his  text-book, 
and  during  a  considerable  part  of  one  summer  devoted 
himself  to  the  study  of  theology,  in  preparation  of  a 
case,  which  finally  he  did  not  argue,  in  defence  of 
a  person  charged  before  an  association  of  ministers, 
with  error  in  doctrine. 

His  literary  pursuits,  and  the  increasing  demands 
of  his  profession,  compelled  him  to  keep  somewhat 
secluded  from  society,  but  there  were  a  few  college 
acquaintances  of  kindred  tastes,  with  whom  he 
maintained  a  correspondence,  and  in  whose  welfare 
he  ever  had  a  deep  interest.  Foremost  among  these 
was  his  old  friend  Rev.  Dr.  James  Marsh,  then 
President  of  the  University  of  Vermont,  through 
whose  efforts  the  American  public  were  first  intro- 
duced to  a  knowledge  of  the  philosophical  writings 
of  Coleridge,  and  whose  early  death  took  from  us 
one  of  the  most  thorough  scholars,  and  one  of  the 
profoundest  Christian  philosophers,  which  our  coun- 
try has  produced.  There  were  few  men  for  whom 


48  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS   CHOATE.  [CHAP.  II. 

Mr.  Choate  had  such  unqualified  respect  and  affec- 
tion. 

The  following  letter  is  in  reply  to  one  from  Dr. 
Marsh  asking  him  to  review  the  forthcoming  edition 
of  the  "  Aids  to  Reflection  :  "  — 

To  PRESIDENT  JAMES  MARSH. 

"  SALEM,  Nov.  14,  1829. 

"Mr  DEAR  SIR,  —  I  thought  it  due  to  the  respect  and 
love  I  bear  you,  and  to  the  kindness  and  delicacy  of  the 
terms  in  which  you  make  it,  to  give  your  suggestion  one 
week's  consideration  before  trusting  myself  to  act  upon  it. 
The  result  is  that  I  feel  it  will  be  wholly  impossible  for  me 
to  execute  this  duty  of  friendship  and  literature  in  a  manner 
worthy  of  the  book  or  its  editor,  or  of  the  elevated  and  im- 
portant purposes  at  which  you  aim  in  this  high  enterprise. 
I  know  you  believe  me  to  be  willing  to  do  every  thing  in 
such  circumstances  which  the  relation  we  sustain  to  each 
other  gives  a  right  to  expect,  and  it  is  with  very  real  regret 
that  I  feel  myself  unable  adequately  to  do  this  great  thing. 
My  habits  have  become  almost  exclusively  professional,  and 
my  time,  I  don't  very  well  know  how,  seems  to  be  just  about 
as  completely  engrossed  by  the  cases  of  business,  as  if,  like 
Henry  Brougham,  I  was  habitually  arguing  my  five  causes 
a  day.  But  there  are  obstacles  in  the  way  which  lie  deeper, 
such  as  the  difficulty  of  gathering  up  the  faculties  which  are 
now  scattered  over  the  barren  technicalities  and  frivolous 
controversies  of  my  profession,  and  concentrating  them  fix- 
edly upon  a  great  moral  and  philosophical  conception,  like 
this  of  yours,  worthily  to  write,  edit,  or  review  such  a  book. 
Though  I  never  saw  it  I  may  say  so.  One  should  sit  whole 
weeks  and  months,  still,  alone,  in  a  study,  with  the  Apollo 
Belvedere  in  marble  to  look  upon,  and  Plato,  Cicero,  Bacon, 
JMilton,  and  ' all  those'  to  converse  with.  I  could  no  more 
raise  myself  into  the  mood  for  this  achievement  than  I  could 
make  a  better  epic  poem  than  the  Iliad.  But  I  rejoice  that 
you  have  taken  this  matter  in  hand,  and  I  firmly  believe 
you  will  produce  a  glorious  book  most  nobly  edited.  The 
employment  of  preparing  it  must  be  elevating  and  salutary, 
and  I  sincerely  hope  its  general  public  success  may  be  bril- 
liant beyond  the  hopes  of  literary  ambition.  I  shall  buy  the 
book,  though  I  dare  not  undertake  to  review  it. 


1830-1840.]          NOMINATION  TO  CONGRESS.  49 

"  I  had  no  suspicion  that  the  Orthodoxy  of  Andover  '  looked 
askance '  at  you  or  yours,  and  I  suspect  the  matter  has  been 
overstated  to  you.  But  it  may  be  so,  since  very  much  nar- 
rowness of  mind  and  very  great  soundness  of  faith  do  some- 
times go  together,  and  the  Professors  have  all  a  sort  of  strange 
horror  of  speculation,  however  regulated  by  a  general  ortho- 
dox belief,  and  a  sincere  love  of  truth  and  of  man.  But 
'  nitor  in  adversum'  says  Burke,  '  is  the  motto  for  a  man 
like  me.'  I  should  no  more  stop  to  consider  how  a  volume 
of  matured  and  brilliant  thoughts  would  be  received  at 
Andover,  than  how  it  would  be  received  by  the  Pope  or 
President  Jackson.  '  Tu  ne  cede  mails,  sed  contra  audentior 
ito.'  Such  was  George  Canning's  self-exhortation,  when  he 
went  forth  morning  and  evening  to  fight  the  great  battles 
of  liberty  and  emancipation  with  the  armed  and  mailed 
champions  of  old  abuse,  error,  and  political  orthodoxy,  and 
a  thrilling  and  sustaining  scripture  it  is. 

"  And  now  I  shall  insist  upon  your  being  perfectly  satis- 
fied with  my  declining  this  honor.  If  a  more  specific  reason 
were  necessary,  I  might  add  that  the  principal  term  of  our 
S.  J.  C.  is  now  holding  here,  has  been  for  a  fortnight,  and 
will  be  till  the  last  of  December.  Then  I  have  to  go  to 
Boston  for  our  winter's  session.  Nay,  before  that  is  over, 
I  hope  the  country  will  ring  from  side  to  side  with  the  fame 
of  your  book. 

"  With  best  regards  and  wishes,  and  Mrs.  Choate's  respects, 
"  1  am  yours  affectionately, 

"  R.  CHOATE." 

In  1830,  Mr.  Choate  was  nominated  by  the  National 
Republicans  of  Essex  as  Representative  to  Congress. 
The  result  of  the  Convention  was  communicated  to 
him  in  the  following  characteristic  letter :  — 

"  SALEM,  10th  Mo.  18, 1830. 

"  RUFUS  CHOATE,  ESQ.,  —  The  Convention  have  deter- 
mined, after  several  ballotings,  to  support  thee  for  Repre- 
sentative to  Congress  for  this  district ;  the  last  ballot,  which 
produced  this  result,  stood  twenty-three  to  twelve.  I  called 
at  thy  office  previous  to  the  balloting  to  ascertain  whether 
the  nomination  would  be  agreeable,  and  after  the  vote  was 
determined  I  informed  the  Convention  of  thy  absence,  and 

4 


50  MEMOIR  OF  KUFUS   CHOATE.          [CHAP.  II. 

a  committee  was  appointed  to  inform  thee  of  the  result,  and 
obtain  an  answer  of  acceptance  or  otherwise.  I  can  now 
say  that  I  believe  no  other  name  would  run  as  well  in  Lynn, 
Chelsea,  Saugus,  and  Lynnfield,  and  I  have  no  doubt  of  an 
election  at  the  first  meeting,  provided  thy  acceptance  is  sea- 
sonably announced.  If  consistent  with  thy  interest  and  incli- 
nation it  would  be  gratifying  to  me  to  hear  of  thy  acceptance. 
When  we  find  the  right  man  in  all  Bother  respects,  we  are 
willing  to  waive  the  Masonic  objection,  believing  the  time  is 
coming  when  all  men  of  talents  and  respectability  will  leave 
that  mere  shadow  for  things  more  substantial. 

"  Thy  friend, 

u  STEPHEN  OLIVER." 

Mr.  Choate  was  then  thirty-one  years  old  and  had 
already,  as  we  have  seen,  passed  through  the  usual 
initiatory  steps  of  public  life,  by  serving  in  the  State 
Legislature.  The  old  district  of  Essex  South,  as  it 
was  called,  had  been  represented  in  Congress  for 
eight  years  by  Hon.  Benj.  W.  Crowninshield,  a  gen- 
tleman of  great  respectability,  wealth,  and  family 
distinction,  who  had  been  Secretary  of  the  Navy 
under  Madison  and  Monroe.  A  good  deal  of  feel- 
ing was  naturally  expressed  by  his  friends,  that  a 
young  and  untried  man,  whose  political  opinions 
were  not  widely  known,  and  whose  acquaintance 
with  the  great  commercial  interests  of  the  district 
could  not  be  presumed  to  equal  that  of  the  veterans 
in  politics,  should  be  nominated  in  place  of  their 
tried  and  proved  representative,  and  Mr.  Crownin- 
shield was  supported  as  an  independent  candidate. 
Strong  influences  were  of  course  brought  to  bear 
against  the  young  lawyer,  who  had  little  to  sustain 
him  in  the  conflict  besides  his  own  character  and 
merits.  He  was  charged  with  being  ambitious  ;  and 
one  young  politician,  then  a  student  at  law  in  the 


1830-1840.]  PLAN  OF  STUDY.  51 

office  of  Mr.  Saltonstall,  in  a  vehement  declamation, 
declared,  that  so  far  from  being  a  substantial  and 
permanent  citizen,  like  Mr.  Crowninshield,  he  was 
only  stopping  in  Salem  for  a  short  time  "  while  he 
oated  his  horse,"  as  he  was  on  his  way  to  Boston. 

In  all  the  contest,  however,  it  was  remarked  that 
no  unkindness  seemed  to  be  felt  towards  Mr.  Choate 
personally.  His  name  had  been  brought  forward  with- 
out his  own  knowledge,  mainly  through  the  agency 
of  his  old  friends  in  Danvers,  and  he  was,  with  some 
difficulty,  prevailed  on  to  accept  the  honor.  About 
the  severest  thing  said  of  him,  politically,  during  an 
active  canvass,  was  a  remark  in  one  of  the  papers 
that  "  Mr.  Choate  is  a  gentleman  of  distinguished 
talents,  but  we  regret  to  state  that  he  is  suspected 
of  Jacksonism ! "  Suspected  or  not,  however,  he 
was  chosen,  after  an  honorable  and  exciting  contest, 
by  a  majority  of  more  than  five  hundred  votes  over 
all  opposing  candidates.  Although  not  ambitious  of 
political  life,  he  was  not  insensible  to  its  honors,  nor 
untouched  by  its  fascinations.  He  regarded  it,  how- 
ever, as  a  means  rather  than  as  an  end.  The  oppor- 
tunities it  gave  for  acquaintance  with  distinguished 
men,  for  wide  observation  of  affairs,  and  study  of 
great  national  questions,  he  certainly  thought  much 
of,  but  his  heart  was  fixed  upon  his  profession,  both 
as  a  necessity,  and  as  offering  large  opportunities  for 
attainment  and  eminence.  The  new  position  brought 
with  it  new  duties  and  responsibilities  from  which 
he  did  not  shrink,  and  which  he  did  not  under- 
value. He  at  once  endeavored  to  prepare  for  them. 
No  sooner  was  he  elected  than  he  laid  out  a  plan 
of  study  which  should  best  fit  him  honorably  to  rep- 


52  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS   CHOATE.  [CHAP.  II. 

resent  his  constituents.  I  have  before  me  a  com- 
monplace book,  one  of  the  small  manuscript  folios 
spoken  of  before,  which  shows  both  the  subjects  to 
which  he  devoted  himself,  and  his  methods  of  study. 
The  first  page  is  as  follows ;  the  words  are  often 
abbreviated,  and  in  his  peculiar  handwriting,  difficult 
to  decipher. 

"  Nov.  4,  1830. 
"FACIENDA  AD  MUNT7S  NUPER  IMPOSITUM. 

"  1.  Pers.  quah,  [personal  qualities].  Memory.  —  Daily 
Food  and  Cowper  dum  ambulo.  Voice,  Manner,  —  Exerci- 
tationes  diurnae. 

"  2.  Current  Politics  in  papers.  1.  Cum  Notulis,  daily,  — 
Geog.  &c.  2.  Annual  Regr.,  Past  Intelligencers,  &c. 

"3.  District  S.  E.  [i.e.  Essex  South],  Pop.  Occs.,  [Popu- 
lation, Occupations].  Modes  of  living.  Commerce,  —  The 
Treaties,  —  and  principles  on  which  it  depends. 

''  4.  Civil  History  of  U.  States  —  in  Pitkin  and  [original] 
Sources. 

"5.  Exam,  of  Pending  Questions:  Tariff,  Pub.  Lands, 
Indians,  Nullification. 

'•6.  Am.  and  Brit.  Eloquence,  —  Writing,  Practice." 

Then  follow  more  than  twenty  pages  of  the  closest 
writing  with  abbreviated  and  condensed  statements 
of  results  drawn  from  many  volumes,  newspapers, 
messages,  and  speeches,  with  propositions  and  argu- 
ments for  and  against,  methodical^  arranged  under 
topics,  with  minute  divisions  and  subdivisions.  Some 
of  these  heads,  under  which  he  endeavors  to  compress 
the  most  essential  political  knowledge,  are  these :  — 

1.  Public  Lands,  giving  the  number  of  acres  in 
the  whole  country,  the  States  where  they  lie,  the 
sources  whence  derived,  the  progress  and  system  of 
sales,  &c.,  &c. 

2.  Politics  of  1831,  brought  down  to  the  beginning 


1830-1840.]      LETTER  TO  PRESIDENT   MARSH.  53 

of  the  session  in  December,  an  analysis  of  the  Presi- 
dent's Message,  and  notes  upon  the  subjects  which 
it  suggests ;  the  measures  and  policy  of  the  govern- 
ment. 

3.  The  Tariff,  beginning  with  an  analysis  of  Ham- 
ilton's Report  in  1790 ;   History   of  Legislation  re- 
specting it ;    Internal  Improvements,  their  cost  and 
the  Constitutional  power  of  making  them. 

Then  follow  three  or  four  closely  written  pages  on 
particular  articles :  wool,  cotton,  flax,  hemp,  iron,  as 
affected  by  the  tariff. 

4.  Analysis  of  British  opinions. 

5.  Cause  of  the  Excitement  in  the  Southern  States. 

6.  Commerce  of  the  United  States  in  1831. 

These  are  but  a  sample  of  the  subjects  which  occupied 
his  attention,  but  they  may  serve  to  indicate  the  thor- 
oughness with  which  he  prepared  for  his  new  position. 
A  letter  to  President  Marsh  will  in  some  measure  show 
his  feeling  and  views  respecting  political  life:  — 

To  PRESIDENT  JAMES  MARSH. 

"  SALEM,  November  14,  1830. 

"  MY  DEAR  SIR,  —  I  am  extremely  obliged  to  you  for  the 
very  kind  notice  which  you  have  taken  of  what  has  lately 
befallen,  —  a  new  and  most  pleasant  indication  how  far  and 
how  high  in  life  you  have  carried  with  you  the  generosity 
and  friendliness  of  our  earlier  intimacy.  Your  letter  was 
handed  me  in  court,  —  in  the  very  middle  of  the  agony  of 
the  trial  of  a  man  for  his  life,  —  but  I  opened  it  straightway, 
and  read  it  with  the  keenest  pleasure,  —  and  forgetting  for  a 
moment  your  glances  at  the  future,  mused  for  an  hour  over 
the  '  sweet  and  bitter  fancies '  that  are  spread  over  the  recol- 
lections of  the  days  of  our  personal  studious  intercourse,  so 
long  past.  Then  I  just  showed  the  outside  of  the  letter  to  a 
brother  lawyer  who  knows  a  little  literature,  as  being  a  letter 


54  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS   CHOATE.  [CHAP.  II. 

from  JAMES  MARSH,  of  Burlington,  —  and  having  thus  sac- 
rificed to  vanity  a  trifle,  roused  myself  up  to  hear  Webster 
argue  a  great  question  of  law,  on  which  the  life  of  the  worst 
of  the  murderers  of  Captain  White  depended. 

"  The  matter  of  my  election  I  do  suppose  rather  a  foolish 
one  on  my  part,  —  but  the  nomination  was  so  made  that  I 
could  not  avoid  it  without  wilfully  shutting  myself  out  of  Con- 
gress for  life,  —  since  my  declining  would  undoubtedly  have 
brought  forward  some  other  new  candidate,  who,  if  elected, 
would  go  ten  years  at  least,  —  long  before  which  time,  if  liv- 
ing, I  might  have  removed  from  the  District.  The  opposi- 
tion which  was  got  up  was  a  good  deal  formidable,  for  noise 
and  anger  at  least,  and  the  wonder  is  that  so  little  came  of  it. 
I,  more  than  once,  while  it  was  raging  about  me,  wished  my- 
self a  tutor  in  the  Indian  Charity  School,  upon  $350  per 
annum,  teaching  the  first  book  of  Livy  to  the  class,  and  study- 
ing with  you  that  dreadful  chapter  in  Mitford  about  the  Dia- 
lects. The  responsibilities  of  the  new  place  I  appreciate 
fully  ; — pro  parte  virili,  I  shall  try  to  meet  them.  I  have  a 
whole  year  yet,  you  know,  before  me,  before  I  take  my  seat, 
—  quite  short  time  enough  for  me  to  mature  and  enter  on  a 
course  of  study  and  thought  adapted  to  this  sphere  of  duty.  I 
hardly  dare  yet  look  the  matter  in  the*face.  Political  life  — 
between  us  —  is  no  part  of  my  plan,  although  I  trust  I  shall 
aim  in  good  faith  to  perform  the  duties  temporarily  and  inci- 
dentally thus  assigned. 

"  Why  don't  you  let  me  know  your  daily  literary  employ- 
ments,—  how  you  divide  your  hours, — what  you  read,  think, 
or  write.  I  should  dearly  love  to  know  just  where  you  are 
on  the  ocean  of  knowledge,  and  what  are  at  any  given  moment 
the  great  objects  with  you  of  intellectual  interest,  or  active  or 
official  pursuit.  Have  you  read  a  little  book  called  the-'  Nat- 
ural History  of  Enthusiasm'?  I  approve  its  religious  charac- 
ter entirely,  and  should  think  it  the  book  of  a  noble  and  full 
mind.  .  .  .  Please  to  present  my  respects  to  Mrs.  Marsh,  and 
believe  me  ever, 

"  Respectfully  yours, 

"  R.  CHOATE." 

Mr.  Choate  took  his  seat  in  Congress  in  December, 
1831,  and  soon  acquired  from  all  parties  that  involun- 
tary respect  which  a  vigorous  and  well-stored  mind  is 


1830-1840.]  SPEECHES  IN  CONGRESS.  55 

sure  to  receive.  He  was  modest  and  retiring,  seldom 
obtruding  upon  the  House  by  a  formal  speech,  was  not 
very  tolerant  of  committees,  but  eagerly  watched  the 
course  of  events,  carefully  examined  public  questions, 
and  made  free  use  of  the  Library  of  Congress.  Mas- 
sachusetts was  then  represented  by  men  of  whom  any 
State  might  be  proud.  In  the  Senate  were  Nathaniel 
Silsbee  and  Daniel  Webster,  then  in  the  fulness  of  his* 
strength  and  fame.  In  the  House  were  John  Quincy 
Adams,  Nathan  Appleton,  George  N.  Briggs,  Edward 
Everett,  and  John  Davis.  The  Congress  itself  was 
composed  of  an  unusual  number  of  statesmen.  Among 
the  Senators  were  Peleg  Sprague,  Samuel  Prentiss, 
William  L.  Marcy,  George  M.  Dallas,  John  M.  Clay- 
ton, Henry  Clay,  and  Thomas  H.  Benton.  The  House 
had  such  men  as  James  M.  Wayne,  George  M'Duffie, 
George  Evans,  James  K.  Polk,  Thomas  Corwin,  arid 
G.  C.  Verplanck.  In  this  body  Mr.  Choate  took  his 
seat,  as  it  soon  proved,  an  equal  among  equals.  It 
was  a  period  of  great  political  excitement.  General 
Jackson  was  drawing  near  the  close  of  the  first  term 
of  his  Presidency,  sustained  by  warm  friends,  yet 
opposed  by  some  of  the  ablest  statesmen  in  the 
country. 

Mr.  Choate  made  but  two  speeches  during  the  ses- 
sion, one  on  Revolutionary  Pensions,  the  other  on  the 
Tariff,  but  these  gave  him  a  position  at  once  among 
the  most  able  and  persuasive  speakers  of  the  House. 
One  of  these  speeches  was  made  under  unusual  cir- 
cumstances. The  subject  of  the  Tariff  had  been 
hanging  for  some  time  in  the  Committee,  when  one 
afternoon  Mr.  Choate  obtained  the  floor.  There  were 
but  few  members  present  when  he  rose,  but  as  he 


56  MEMOIR   OF   RUFUS   CHOATE.          [CHAP.  II. 

continued  to  speak,  one  after  another  came  from  the 
lobbies  to  the  door,  stood  a  moment  to  listen,  were 
caught  and  drawn  to  their  seats  by  the  irresistible 
charm  of  his  mellifluous  utterance,  till  gradually  the 
hall  became  full,  and  all,  for  convenience  of  hearing, 
gathered  in  a  circle  about  the  speaker.  He  had  a 
nervous  dread  of  thunder,  and  was  never  quite  at 
ease  in  a  severe  storm.  Before  he  had  half  finished 
his  speech  a  dark  thunder-cloud  rolled  up  and  sud- 
denly burst  over  the  Capitol.  Mr.  Choate  was  stand- 
ing directly  under  the  central  skylight ;  his  face  pale 
with  a  blackish  paleness,  and  his  whole  frame  tremu- 
lous with  unusual  excitement.  The  hearers  caught 
his  emotion  and  listened  intently  as  he  went  on.  At 
the  same  time  the  increasing  darkness,  the  rushing 
wind  and  rain,  the  lurid  light  through  the  distant  win- 
dows, the  red  and  searching  gleams  of  the  lightning, 
the  rattling  peals  of  thunder,  the  circle  of  upturned 
white  faces,  lighted  from  above,  gazing  earnestly  on 
the  speaker,  —  all  made  it  a  scene  not  easily  to  be 
forgotten.  He  spoke  in  the  modest,  deferential  man- 
ner natural  to  him,  with  the  same  delicious,  uninter- 
rupted flow  of  choice  words,  and  with  hardly  a  gesture 
except  the  lifting  and  settling  of  the  upper  part  of 
the  body,  and  he  sat  down  amidst  the  enthusiasm  of 
those  who  heard  him,  members  of  all  parties  rushing 
to'  offer  their  congratulations.  His  position  as  a  par- 
liamentary orator  was  established. 

The  tariff  and  nullification  were  the  great  subjects 
which  interested  the  public  mind  during  this  session. 
A  single  letter  to  a  constituent  will  give  an  insight 
into  the  political  hopes  and  fears  of  the  writer,  and 
of  those  who  belonged  to  the  same  party  with  him. 


1830-1840.]    LETTER  TO  DR.  ANDREW  NICHOLS.  57 


•  To  DR.  ANDREW  NICHOLS,  Danvers,  Mass. 

"  WASHINGTON,  14th  Jan.  1832. 

"  DEAR  SIR, —  I  have  just  received  your  favor  of  the  9th, 
and  assure  you  that  I  have  read  it  with  interest  and  pleasure. 
You  will  have  seen  before  this  reaches  you,  that  the  battle 
is  already  begun,  and  that  Clay  has  presented  to  the  Senate 
and  the  country  a  clear  and  explicit  outline  of  the  principles 
on  which  the  friends  of  the  tariff  are  willing  to  meet  the  crisis 
occasioned  by  the  extinguishment  of  the  debt.  This  exposi- 
tion of  his  is  undoubtedly  the  result  of  the  combined  wisdom 
of  the  whole  tariff  party  as  here  represented,  and  the  com- 
mittees in  each  branch  will  report  bills  carrying  the  principle 
into  details.  It  is  considered  here  a  sound,  just,  and  'saving 
creed;  and  I  should  think  the  system  in  its  great  features  per- 
fectly safe.  It  is  the  all -engrossing  topic.  I  cannot  help 
thinking  that  the  excitement  at  the  South  is  to  a  considerable 
degree  artificial.  Certain  it  is,  the  injurious  effects  of  the  tariff 
on  them  are  greatly  overrated.  To  the  cotton  manufacture, 
I  should  say  they  are  very  much  reconciled,  and  considering 
what  a  vast  market  it  creates  for  their  cotton,  —  taking  a 
sixth  perhaps  of  the  whole  crop,  —  it  would  be  strange  if 
they  were  not.  Coarse  woollens  are  the  special  objects  of  their 
hostility.  Then  they  hate  New  England,  and  they  think,  or 
affect  to  think,  that  the  tariff  raises  the  prices  of  their  pur- 
chases, for  the  sole  benefit  of  the  New  England  manufac- 
turer. But  all  is  safe  and  sure,  and  fifty  years  more  will 
probably  satisfy  South  Carolina  herself  that  the  New  Eng- 
land cotton  market,  the  increased  value  of  slaves,  diminished 
quantity  and  higher  price  of  cotton  from  the  sugar  culture  of 
Louisiana,  the  fall  of  prices  from  the  competition  of  American 
and  foreign  manufactures  in  our  own  market,  afford  even  her 
some  compensation  for  the  prosperity  of  the  North  and  East. 
The  article  in  the  last  '  American  Quarterly '  is  by  Senator 
Johnston,  of  Louisiana,  —  a  State  of  great  importance  to  the 
friends  of  the  system.  All  the  West,  the  Middle  States,  and 
East,  except  Maine  and  New  Hampshire,  are  sound,  and  have 
just  as  little  fancy  for  slow  poison,  and  being  cut  up  in  detail, 
as  they  have  for  violent  instantaneous  death,  or  a  general 
rout.  Clay's  presence  in  the  Senate  this  winter  is  providen- 
tial. Surely  he  is  needed  more  than  in  1824,  if  possible, 
and  he  has  cordial,  most  able,  and  sufficient  support  in  the 


58  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS  CHOATE.          [CHAP.  II. 

Senate.     His  speech  was  not  showy,  nor  vehement,  but  cool, 
plain,  paternal,  grave,  conciliatory. 

"  With  great  respect,  &c., 

"R.  CHOATE." 

Among  the  college  friends  of  Mr.  Choate,  sympa- 
thizing with  him  in  love  of  learning,  and  carrying  his 
pursuits  into  fields  at  that  time  not  much  cultivated 
in  this  country,  was  Rev.  George  Bush,  a  thorough 
scholar,  and  an  eloquent  writer.  He  had  been  giving 
a  careful  attention  to  Oriental  literature,  and  sowing 
the  seed  which  afterwards  grew  into  the  "  Life  of  Mo- 
hammed," Hebrew  Grammars,  and  Commentaries  on 
several  books  of  the  old  Testament.  Many  years 
afterwards  he  adopted  the  opinions  of  Swedenborg, 
and  deservedly  obtained  great  respect  and  influence 
among  the  followers  of  that  mystic  philosopher  and 
religions  apostle.  A  correspondence  with  Mr.  Bush 
was  revived  by  Mr.  Choate  during  this  his  first  session 
at  Washington. 

To  REV.  GEORGE  BUSH. 

"  WASHINGTON,  Jan.  21,  1832. 

"  MY  DEAR  SIR,  —  I  received  a  few  days  since  a  portion 
of  a  work  on  which  I  heard  you  were  engaged,  addressed  to 
me  in  a  handwriting  which  I  could  not  fail  to  recognize  as 
yours,  although  the  most  recent  specimen  of  it  in  my  posses- 
sion is  now  about  eleven  years  old.  I  embrace  the  generous 
intimation  conveyed  in  this  notice,  to  present  to  you  my 
respects,  and  to  extend  to  you,  in  the  language  of  ordination, 
the  right  hand  of  that  old  and  cherished  fellowship  to  which 
I  owe  so  much.  .  .  .  How  have  these  eleven  years,  —  twelve 
years  is  it  not  ?  —  how  has  time  '  which  changes  every  thing, 
man  more  than  any  thing,'  dealt  with  you  ?  What  a  curiosity 
one  feels  to  see  if  he  can  find  the  traces  of  that  imperceptible, 
busy,  and  really  awful  touch  under  which  temple  and  tower 
at  length  fall  down,  upon  the  countenance  and  person,  in  the 
•eye,  tones,  and  feelings  of  an  old  friend  long  absent !  In  one 


1830-1840.]        LETTER  TO  REV.  GEORGE   BUSH.  59 

respect,  this  long  interval  has  been  to  both  of  us  alike  full  of 
short  joy  and  enduring  sorrow,  —  each  having  possessed  and 
lost  an  object  of  dearest  love  which  the  other  never  saw. 
But  I  forgot  that  perhaps  you  never  heard  that  I  have 
buried  within  two  years  a  most  sweet  and  bright  child  of  four 
years  old,  whom  I  would  have  given  a  right  arm  to  save.  It 
must  be  a  vast  alleviation  of  your  far  greater  bereavement 
that  your  child  is  spared. 

"  A  hundred  thousand  recollections  come  over  me  as  I 
write  to  you,  which  stop  me,  make  me  lay  down  my  pen,  and 
rest  my  head  on  my  hand.  Dismissing  them  all,  I  beg  to 
know  why  you  will  not  come  on  here  a  little  while  this  win- 
ter ?  Besides  your  friends  at  Dr.  Lindsley's,  you  will  find  at 
least  one  old  pupil,  —  besides  myself,  —  a  Mrs.  H.,  the  wife 
of  a  member  who  remembers  your  term  of  service  at  Mr. 
D.'s  seminary  with  respect  and  affection,  —  and  some  few 
other  objects  of  interest.  Let  go  the  pains  and  pleasures  of 
authorship  for  a  month  ;  come  and  see  with  how  little  wisdom 
the  world  is  governed,  and  return  with  a  lighter  heart  to 
Mohammed  and  Joseph,  Arabia,  Egypt,  and  the  waters  of 
Israel.  I  have  a  chamber  in  the  third  story  by  myself;  a 
long  table,  —  perhaps  the  most  desirable  of  luxuries,  —  with 
two  windows  looking  out  upon  the  shores  of  Virginia,  the 
setting  sun,  and  the  grave  of  Washington,  and  here  you  shall 
sit  if  you  will,  and  we  will  sacrifice  to  renewed  friendship  and 
auld  lang  syne.  But  I  forget  all  proprieties,  like  the  Dominie 
upon  the  recovery  of  Bertram.  I  stop  short,  therefore,  first 
earnestly  hoping  to  hear  from  you  immediately. 

"  With  great  regard  and  affection,  yours, 

"R.  CHOATE." 


To  REV.  GEORGE  BUSH. 

"  WASHINGTON,  Feb.  12,  1832. 

"  MY  DEAR  SIR,  —  I  hardly  can  get  time,  so  '  strenuous ' 
and  full  of  incident  is  the  idleness  of  our  life  here,  to  write 
a  letter,  except  of  a  Sunday  afternoon,  after  a  morning  at 
church.  Last  Sunday  I  began  to  write  to  you,  —  was  inter- 
rupted, and,  like  a  resolution  offered  the  last  month  of  the 
session,  it  has  stood  over  one  week.  ...  I  shall  send  you 
what  I  write  to-day,  though  it  be  no  more  than  a  bare  expres- 
sion of  thanks  for  your  letter,  and  a  hope  to  have  many  more 


60  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS   CHOATE.          [CHAP.  IL 

like  it.  I  learn  from  Dr.  C.  that  your  brother's  health  com- 
pels him  to  take  a  voyage,  which  of  course  puts  it  out  of  your 
power  to  continue  your  personal  attentions.  If  this  leaves 
you  so  much  disengaged  that  you  can  come,  I  hope  to  see  you 
here  yet.  You  will  be  driven  from  that  great  city  by  the 
cholera  I  am  afraid,  before  long,  —  an  awful  scourge  of  na- 
tional and  personal  sins,  which  we  can  no  more  escape  in  this 
country,  than  we  can  turn  back  the  east  wind  to  his  sources 
in  the  caves  of  the  sea.  I  board  with  a  physician,  and  have, 
therefore,  an  instructed  and  reasonable  dread  of  this  business. 
But  whoso  best  knows  Washington,  will  be  least  disposed  to 
recommend  it  as  a  city  of  refuge.  I  was  surprised  at  the 
reasons  you  suggest  for  withdrawing  from  the  pulpit.  But 
it  little  matters  what  the  vocation  is,  if  it  be  suited  to  the 
measure,  fulness,  and  desires  of  the  mind  which  it  attaches  to 
itself.  I  think  educated,  tasteful,  and  knowing  men,  however, 
should  remember  that '  great  parts  are  a  great  trust,'  and  that 
there  is  responsibleness  connected  as  well  with  the  proper 
selection  of  employment,  as  with  the  discharge  of  its  duties 
when  selected.  I  hold  a  good  book  and  good  sermon  to  be 
not  only  well  per  se,  but  to  be  worthy,  fitting,  and  adequate 
achievements  of  good  minds.  Authorship  and  the  business 
of  instruction  go  well  together,  however,  or  else  the  introduc- 
tion to  Old  Mortality  is  as  much  a  fiction  as  the  main  story. 

"  I  should  think,  quocunque  nomine  gaudes,  however  em- 
ployed, New  York  would  be  a  pleasant  residence  for  you. 
To  be  sure,  as  in  duty  bound,  I  hold  Boston,  with  its  Univer- 
sity society,  rather  the  best  place  to  live  in,  in  all  North 
America,  but  I  cannot  but  see  its  inferiority  in  some  respects 
to  New  York.  You  are  so  near  to  England,  and  so  central 
to  all  the  art,  enterprise,  science,  mind,  and  politics  of  the 
Republic,  that  you  have  great  advantage  over  the  more  pro- 
vincial portions  of  the  country,  so  much  farther  from  which 
the  '  sun  drives  his  chariot.'  There  must  be  a  wide  circle  of 
fine  minds  in  that  city. —  Verplanck  here  is  such  an  one  I 
should  think,  —  'a  thing  that's  most  uncommon,'  an  honest, 
learned,  modest,  reasonable  man,  —  yet  a  Van  Buren  Jack- 
sonian,  —  credite  posteri  ! 

"  What  do  you  think  now,  —  I  have  the  Shakspeare  here 
which  you  gave  me,  and  I  read  a  few  lines  of  Greek  and  Latin 
every  morning,  and  I  trust,  if  we  should  meet,  we  could  take 
each  other  up  just  where  we  were  set  down  twelve  years  ago, 
even  in  the  humanities.  In  all  love  and  honor,  respect  and 


1830-1840.]       MISSIONARIES   TO   THE   INDIANS.  61 

affection,  I  am  sure  we  could.  I  wish  you  would  write  me 
very  often,  assured  always  that  you  write  to  a  constant,  as 
well  as  old  friend.  Yours  ever, 

"R.  CHOATE." 

Congress  adjourned  July  14,  1832.  The  summer 
and  autumn  were  full  of  political  excitement.  The 
result  of  the  elections  was  the  renewed  choice  of 
Andrew  Jackson  for  President  (over  Henry  Clay),  by 
an  immense  majority.  The  result  was  not  unexpected. 
"  The  news  from  the  voting  States,"  wrote  Mr.  Choate 
to  Mr.  Everett  on  the  10th  of  November,  "blows  over 
us  like  a  great  cold  storm.  I  suppose  all  is  lost,  and 
that  the  map  may  be  rolled  up  for  twelve  years  to 
come.  Happy  if,  when  it  is  opened  again,  no  State 
shall  be  missing." 

Among  the  subjects  which  deeply  agitated  the  pop- 
ular mind  of  the  North,  especially  of  the  religious  com- 
munities, was  the  treatment  of  the  Southern  Indians, 
by  the  States  within  whose  boundaries  they  existed. 

In  legislating  against  the  Cherokees,  Georgia  had 
passed  a  law  that  no  white  man  should  reside  within 
the  limits  of  the  Cherokee  nation,  without  permission 
from  the  governor  of  the  State,  and  after  having  taken 
an  oath  to  support  and  defend  the  laws  of  Georgia,  on 
penalty  of  imprisonment  at  hard  labor  for  a  term  not 
exceeding  four  years.  Under  this  law  Rev.  Messrs. 
Worcester  and  Butler,  missionaries  of  the  American 
Board  to  the  Indians,  and  five  others,  were  tried  and 
sentenced  in  September,  1831.  After  conviction, 
pardon  was  offered  on  condition  of  obedience  to  the 
State  law.  Five  persons  accepted  the  offer,  but 
Messrs.  Worcester  and  Butler  refused,  and  appealed 
to  the  U.  S.  Supreme  Court.  Mr.  Wirt  and  Mr. 


62  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS   CHOATE.  [CHAP.  II. 

Sergeant  argued  their  cause.  Georgia  did  not  ap- 
pear, but  the  court,  in  March,  1832,  pronounced  the 
law  of  the  State  unconstitutional.  Georgia  refused 
to  obey  the  mandate  or  reverse  her  decision.  The 
missionaries,  however,  after  about  eighteen  months' 
imprisonment,  were  pardoned  and  released  on  the 
16th  of  January,  1833.  In  the  mean  time  nullifica- 
tion, as  it  was  called,  had  assumed  a  portentous  mag- 
nitude in  South  Carolina.  A  convention  had  been 
holden ;  the  State  bristled  with  bayonets ;  defiance 
was  upon  every,  lip.  At  the  head  of  the  general 
government  was  a  man,  who,  whatever  were  his 
faults,  never  lacked  courage,  or  resolution,  or  patriot- 
ism. In  January,  1833,  General  Jackson  issued  his 
famous  proclamation  against  South  Carolina.  It  was 
honest,  weighty,  and  irresistible.  Party  feeling  for  a 
while  was  quelled.  The  moral  sentiment  of  the 
country  sustained  the  President.  A  letter  from  Mr. 
Choate  to  his  friend,  Prof.  Bush,  who  seems  for  the 
moment  to  have  taken  a  view  opposed  to  the  Presi- 
dent, will  indicate  his  own  feeling  and  that  of  many 
others  with  him. 

To  PROFESSOR  GEORGE  BUSH. 

"WASHINGTON,  Jan.  29,  1833. 

"Mr  DEAR- FRIEND,  —  Your  letter  finds  me  swallowing 
lots  of  wormwood  tea,  —  not  to  sweeten  my  imagination,  but 
to  check  a  furious  sick  headache,  —  a  poor  mood  for  answering 
deep  questions,  though  an  excellent  one  for  appreciating  a  let- 
ter from  a  loved  and  honored  friend.  Did  I  not  talk  about  you 
an  hour  to  Dr.  Bond, —  Tutor  Bond,  —  last  Sunday  evening? 
The  Doctor  stands  against  time  like  '  an  obelisk  fronting  the 
sun.'  He  reminds  me  of  Livy's  pictured  page,  I  warrant  me, 
of  Consuls,  Lictors,  axes,  and  especially  Tarpeian  rocks,  — 
down  which  all  nullifiers  and  states-rights  men  —  except  you 
—  ought  to  be  precipitated,  Senatus  consulto,  edicto,  plebiscite, 


1830-1840.]        LETTER   TO  PROF.  GEORGE  BUSH.  63 

—  Latin   or  no  Latin,  —  under  the  grammar  or  against  it. 
How  the  missionaries  settled  the  matter  with  their  cause  and 
consciences  I  have  never  heard.     Speaking  as  a  politician,  I 
rejoice  that  Georgia  has  been  thus  detached  from  South  Caro- 
lina, and  harnessed  into  the  great  car  of  the  Constitution.     It 
needs  tali  auxilio  et  defensoribus  istis  even.     My  dear  friend, 
there  is  no  more  danger  of  consolidation  (that  is,  until  the 
States  first  go  apart,  snapping  these  ties  of  gauze)  than  there 
is  of  an  invasion  by  the  real  Xerxes  of  Herodotus.     One 
single  mistake  now,  any  yielding,  any  thing  short  of  a  dead 
march    up   to  the  whole  outermost   limit  of   Constitutional 
power,  and  the  Federal  Government  is  contemptible  for  ever. 
The  Georgia  case  is,  to  be  sure,  a  bad  business.     It  is  a  clear 
case  of  nullification  by  the  State.     But  so  far  as  the  mission- 
aries are  concerned,  the  Federal  government  has»not  declined 
any  duty.     The  judiciary  performed  its  part.     The  President 
is  called  on  for  nothing,  until  another  application  to  the  Fed- 
eral Judiciary,  and  that,  you  see,  the  pardon  interposes  to 
render    unnecessary.     The   two    systems  have   not   directly 
clashed,  though  they  bit  their  thumbs.     The  Indians, — the 
treaties,  — the  whole  code  of  intercourse  law,  —  all  go  over- 
board of  course.     The  moral  guilt  of  the  S.  C.  case  is  less. 
The  constitutional  enormity  of  the  thing  is  more  palpable 
and  more    tangible,  and    the  precedent,  pejoris    exempli  — 
pessimi  indeed.  .  .  . 

"  The  session  is  now  one  of  thrilling  interest.  Calhoun  is 
drunk  with  disappointment ;  the  image  of  an  ardent,  imagina- 
tive, intellectual  man,  who  once  thought  it  as  easy  *  to  set  the 
stars  of  glory  on  his  brow '  as  to  put  his  hat  on  ;  now  ruined, 
dishonored.  He  has  to  defend  the  most  contemptible  untruth 
in  the  whole  history  of  human  opinion,  and  no  ability  will 
save  him  from  contempt  mentally.  Then  he  hoped  to  recover 
himself  by  a  brilliant  stroke,  permanently  inserting  nullifica- 
tion into  our  polity,  and  putting  himself  at  the  head  of  a  great 
Convention  of  the  States,  —  a  great  midnight  thunder-storm, 
hail-storm,  meeting  of  witches  and  demons,  round  a  caldron 
big  enough  to  receive  the  disjecta  membra,  of  the  Constitution, 

—  thence  never  to  come  a  whole,  still  less  a  blooming,  young, 
and   vigorous   form.     Wherefore  pereat.     I   am    somewhat 
weak  from  medicine,  and  must  bid  you  farewell.     Write  me 
daily,  and  reconsider  the  point  of  Consolidation.     I  say  that 
will  come  with  Xerxes.  Truly  yours, 

u  R.  CHOATE." 


64  MEMOIR  OF  EUFUS   CHOATE.  [CHAP.  IL 

In  April,  1833,  having  been  again  nominated  by 
the  National  Republicans,  Mr.  Choate  was  re-elected 
to  Congress  by  an  increased  majority.  Opposition 
from  the  friends  of  Mr.  Crowninshield  had  nearly 
died  away,  and  from  many  of  them  he  received  a  cor- 
dial support.  The  most  exciting  subject  of  the  next 
session  was  the  Bank  of  the  United  States.  The 
President  had  already  refused  assent  to  a  bill  re- 
chartering  this  institution,  and  soon  after  determined 
to  remove  the  public  moneys  deposited  in  its  vaults. 
After  the  adjournment  of  Congress,  in  March,  1833, 
William  J*.  Duane,  of  Pennsylvania,  was  appointed 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  Mr.  M'Lane  having  been 
transferred  to  the  Department  of  State.  The  Presi- 
dent at  once  urged  the  new  Secretary  to  remove  the 
deposits,  Avhich,  not  being  convinced  of  the  wisdom 
of  the  measure,  he  declined  to  do.  Upon  this  Presi- 
dent Jackson  removed  him  from  office,  and  appointed 
in  his  place  Roger  B.  Taney,  who  immediately  carried 
out  the  wishes  of  the  Executive.  Great  commercial 
distress  followed  this  proceeding.  The  act  was  con- 
demned by  many  of  the  friends  of  the  administra- 
tion as  well  as  by  the  opposition.  Confidence  was 
destroyed,  business  interrupted,  industry  checked, 
and  all  moneyed  institutions  deranged  where  but  a 
few  months  before  every  thing  was  active  and  pros- 
perous. The  Senate  was  opposed  te  the  President, 
and  passed  a  resolution  censuring  his  conduct ;  but 
the  House  had  a  large  majority  in  his  favor.  Memo- 
rials were  addressed  to  Congress  from  various  cities 
and  public  bodies.  The  Committee  of  Ways  and 
Means  having  submitted  a  report  with  reference  to 
the  removal  of  the  deposits,  Mr.  Choate  addressed 


1830-1840.]  "OLD  BEN  HAKDIN."  65 

the  House  on  the  28th  March,  1834.  He  had  pre- 
pared himself  to  consider  the  whole  subject  in  its 
constitutional  relations  as  well  as  financial,  but  at 
the  suggestion  of  Mr.  Webster  confined  himself  to  the 
latter  branch  of  the  subject.  The  speech  is  direct, 
earnest,  persuasive,  and  conciliatory.  It  was  with 
relation  to  this  speech  that  the  anecdote  is  told  of 
Benjamin  Hardin,  —  "  Old  Ben  Hardin"  —  as  he  was 
called,  of  Kentucky,  who  then  heard  Mr.  Choate  for 
the  first  time.  I  give  it  in  the  words  of  one  who  was 
present.  "  Mr.  Hardin  was  an  old  stager  in  politics, 
a  strong-minded,  though  somewhat  rough  individual, 
who  was  not  disposed  to  much  leniency  in  his  criti- 
cisms of  the  efforts  of  younger  members.  He  was,  like 
Mr.  Choate,  Whig  in  politics ;  and  several  days,  or 
perhaps  weeks,  after  the  speech  of  Mr.  Choate,  he 
made  an  elaborate  argument  on  the  same  question, 
and  on  the  same  side.  At  the  outset  of  his  remarks 
he  stated  that  it  was  his  uniform  rule  not  to  listen 
to  speeches  upon  the  same  side  of  a  question  that  he 
intended  to  discuss,  as  he  wished  to  be  conscious  of 
feeling  that  no  part  of  his  argument  had  been  antici- 
pated by  others,  '  but,'  said  he,  '  I  was  compelled  to 
depart  from  this  rule  once  during  this  debate.  The 
member  from  Massachusetts  rose  to  speak,  and,  in 
accordance  with  my  custom,  I  took  my  hat  to  leave, 
lingering  a  moment  just  to  notice  the  tone  of  his  voice 
and  the  manner  of  his  speech.  But  that  moment  was 
fatal  to  my  resolution.  I  became  charmed  by  the 
music  of  his  voice,  and  was  captivated  by  the  power 
of  his  eloquence,  and  found  myself  wholly  unable  to 
move  until  the  last  word  of  his  beautiful  speech  had 
been  uttered.' " 

6 


66  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS   CHOATE.  [CHAP.  IL 

At  the  close  of  this  session,  having  determined  to 
remove  to  Boston,  Mr.  Choate  resigned  his  place  in 
Congress.  While  at  Salem  he  had  continued  his 
studies  in  literature,  always  with  him  second  only  in 
interest  to  the  profession  on  which  he  depended  for 
daily  bread.  Besides  the  lecture  on  the  "  Waverley 
Novels,"  he  had  delivered  another  on  Poland,  taking 
the  occasion  from  the  revolution  in  that  country  to 
present  a  well-considered  and  careful  picture  of  her 
government,  resources,  and  people,  in  a  style  fervid, 
yet  moderate  and  sustained.  He  also  delivered  an 
address  at  the  centennial  celebration  of  the  settlement 
of  Ipswich. 

In  removing  to  Boston  Mr.  Choate  felt  that  the 
experiment  was  doubtful.  Some  judicious  friends 
advised  against  the  change.  He  left  an  established 
position,  and  a  growing  practice,  for  severer  contests 
and  a  sharper  rivalship.  But  generous  rivalry  he 
never  feared,  and  the  result  showed  how  truly  he 
estimated  his  own  powers.  He  had  now  a  family  — 
two  daughters  and  a  son  —  to  stimulate  his  labor. 
Two  older  children  he  had  lost.  They  now  lie  in  the 
graveyard  at  Essex. 

Not  long  after  he  came  to  Boston,  as  early  perhaps 
as  1836,  he  gave  a  lecture  on  "  The  Romance  of  the 
Sea."  The  subject  was  one  in  which  he  could  revel. 
The  mystery,  the  power  of  the  ocean,  the  achievements 
upon  its  many  waters,  all  that  poets  have  sung,  all  that 
history  or  fiction  has  told,  went  to  form  the  substance 
or  illustration  of  the  theme.  It  was  one  of  the  most 
fascinating  of  his  many  lectures.  He  afterwards  lost 
it,  or  it  was  stolen  from  him,  in  New  York.  But  if 
stolen  it  is  really  pleasant  to  think  of  the  disappoint- 


1830-1840.]         FIRST  FEW  YEARS   IN  BOSTON.  67 

ment  of  the  thief.     A  Coptic  manuscript  would  have 
been  to  him  quite  as  legible. 

The  first  six  or  seven  years  in  Boston  were  marked 
mainly  by  a  steady  growth  in  his  profession.  Every 
young  man  who  enters  such  a  community,  bringing 
a  reputation  earned  in  a  different  field,  is  necessarily 
subjected  to  close  scrutiny.  His  ability  is  judged  by  a 
new,  and  perhaps  severer  standard.  He  is  a  stranger 
until  he  has  proved  himself  worthy  of  the  fellowship 
of  a  citizen.  The  pride  of  the  bar,  generous,  but 
necessarily  exclusive,  grants  its  honors  to  him  only 
who  can  fairly  win  them.  Mr.  Choate  —  whose  ap- 
pearance and  manner  were  unique,  whose  eloquence 
then  was  as  exuberant,  fervid,  and  rich  as  it  ever 
became  ;  who,  however  modest  for  himself,  was  bold 
almost  to  rashness  for  his  client ;  who  startled  court 
and  jury  by  his  vehemence,  and  confounded  the  com- 
monplace and  routine  lawyer  by  the  novelty  and 
brilliancy  of  his  tactics  ;  who,  free  from  vulgar  tricks, 
was  yet  full  of  surprises,  and  though  perpetually 
delighting  by  the  novelty  and  beauty  of  his  argument, 
was  yet  without  conceit  or  vanity,  —  could  not  at  once 
be  fully  understood  and  appreciated.  He  fairly  fought 
his  way  to  eminence  ;  created  the  taste  which  he  grat- 
ified ;  and  demonstrated  the  possibility  of  almost  a 
new  variety  of  eloquence.  It  would  have  been  sur- 
prising, if  he  had  not  to  contend  with  prejudices  which 
time  only  could  fully  melt  away.  For  several  years 
it  was  rather  the  fashion  to  laugh  at  his  excessive 
vehemence  of  gesture,  and  playful  exaggerations,  but 
when  it  was  found  that  the  flowers  and  myrtle  con- 
cealed a  blade  of  perfect  temper,  and  as  keen  as  any 
that  the  dryest  logician  could  forge,  that  the  fervent 


68  MEMOIR   OF  RUFUS   CHOATE.          [CHAP.  II. 

gesticulator  never  for  one  moment  lost  command  of 
himself  or  his  subject,  nor  failed  to  hold  the  thought 
and  interest  of  the  jury,  as  the  ancient  mariner  held 
the  wedding-guest,  till  convinced,  delighted,  entranced, 
they  were  eager  to  find  a  verdict  for  his  client, — 
doubt  gave  place  to  confidence,  and  disparagement  to 
admiration.  During  these  six  or  seven  years  he  was 
steadily  growing  in  knowledge  and  in  influence.  He 
made  the  more  familiar  acquaintance  with  the  leaders 
of  the  Suffolk  bar,  then  unsurpassed  in  the  whole  land 
for  ability  and  learning.  There  he  met  (not  to  speak 
of  the  living)  the  polished  rhetoric  of  Franklin  Dexter, 
the  subtle  and  powerful  logic  of  Jeremiah  Mason,  and 
the  tremendous  weight  and  authority  of  Webster.  He 
heard  the  law  expounded  and  declared  by  the  integrity 
and  learning  and  wisdom  of  Samuel  Hubbard  and 
Samuel  Sumner  Wilde  and  Lemuel  Shaw.  To  meet 
such  competitors,  to  stand  unharmed  before  the  judg- 
ments of  such  a  tribunal,  compelled  the  most  diligent 
and  unremitting  study.  Distinction  could  be  attained 
only  by  merit.  Eminence  was  itself  proof  of  high 
abilities  and  of  strenuous  labor.  Preserving  his  inter- 
est in  letters,  he  still  found  time  to  deliver  a  number 
of  lectures  before  associations  of  young  men,  and  with 
ever  increasing  popularity.  He  suffered  also  a  severe 
domestic  calamity.  Two  daughters  were  born  to  him 
in  Boston.  Of  these  the  younger,  Caroline,  was  in 
1840  three  years  old.  To  all  his  children  he  was 
tenderly  attached,  and  to  her,  perhaps  as  being  the 
youngest,  especially.  She  was  a  beautiful  child,  and 
he  never  failed,  coming  home  late  from  the  labors  of 
his  office,  to  go  up  to  the  room  where  she  was  sleeping, 
to  give  her  an  evening  kiss.  The  following  account 


1830-1840.]      LETTER  TO  REV.  HUBBARD  WINSLOW.       69 

of  her  last  hours,  in  the  words  of  a  clergyman,  who, 
in  the  absence  of  Mr.  Choate's  pastor,  Rev.  Dr.  Adams, 
was  called  to  be  present,  will  show  the  extreme  ten- 
derness and  affection  of  the  father.  On  the  day  of 
her  death  Mr.  Choate  had  sent  him  the  following 
note :  — 

"BOSTON,  Saturday  morning. 
"  To  Rev.  Hubbard  Winslow :  — 

"Mr  DEAE  SIR, — I  am  apprehensive  that  I  am  about 
losing  my  youngest  child,  and  I  take  the  liberty  to  ask  you, 
if  not  very  inconvenient,  to  do  us  the  great  kindness  of  bap- 
tizing her.  Her  mother  is  a  member  of  a  church,  and  this 
ordinance  has  been  accidentally  delayed. 

"  I  am  aware  of  the  freedom  of  this  request,  but  I  hope 
the  severity  and  peculiarity  of  our  trying  circumstances  will 
excuse  it.  It  seems  to  us  that  3  o'clock  P.M.,  or  a  little  after, 
may  be  as  late  as  we  shall  desire  to  delay,  —  perhaps  too 
late. 

"  If  you  can  consent  to  do  us  this  favor,  and  will  apprise 
me  of  the  decision,  I  will  send  a  carriage  for  you. 
"  Very  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 

"Rums  CHOATE." 

"  Entering  the  chamber,"  says  Dr.  Winslow,  "  at 
the  appointed  time,  I  found  the  family  all  assembled. 
The  beautiful  little  girl  of  perhaps  three  years  lay 
dying.  Mr.  Choate  said,  '  I  hope  you  will  pardon 
this  liberty.  We  have  given  our  dear  child  to 
God,  and  we  think  He  is  about  to  take  her ;  but  we 
have  neglected  her  baptism.'  I  said  a  few  words 
of  the  ordinance  as  not  essential  to  the  salvation  of 
the  child,  but  the  answer  of  a  good  conscience  on 
the  part  of  the  parents.  He  assented,  and  said  he 
desired  to  do  his  duty  in  that  particular.  All  kneeled 
in  prayer,  and  after  the  ordinance  and  a  few  remarks, 
I  was  about  to  retire,  to  leave  the  weeping  family  to 
the  sacredness  of  their  domestic  sorrow,  when  Mr. 


70  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS   CHOATE.  [CHAP.  IL 

Choate  took  my  hand  and  besought  me  to  remain 
with  them  while  the  child  lived.  I  consented  to  re- 
main till  evening,  when  I  had  another  engagement. 
He  stood  by  the  fireplace,  resting  his  elbows  on  the 
marble,  burying  his  face  in  his  hands,  evidently  ab- 
sorbed in  prayer.  Mrs.  Choate  was  bending  over  the 
pillow,  with  the  yearning  tenderness  of  a  mother, 
and  the  older  children  and  servants  stood  around  in 
silent  grief ;  while  I  sat  by  the  bedside  observing  the 
child's  symptoms,  and  sometimes  repeating  a  passage 
of  Scripture  or  a  pertinent  stanza  of  poetry.  And 
thus  a  full  hour  passed  in  silence,  in  prayer,  in  tears, 
in  communion  with  death  and  eternity,  Mr.  Choate 
remaining  motionless  as  a  statue  during  the  whole 
time.  Perceiving  the  pulse  failing  and  the  breath  be- 
coming very  short  and  difficult,  I  said,  '  Mr.  Choate, 
I  fear  the  dear  child  is  just  leaving  us.'  He  then 
came  to  the  bedside,  embraced  her,  kissed  her  three 
times,  and  then  returned  and  resumed  his  position  as 
before.  All  the  family  followed  him  in  the  parting 
kiss.  A  few  moments  after,  the  angel  spirit  fled.  I 
closed  the  sightless  eyes,  and  said,  '  My  dear  Mr. 
Choate,  your  sweet  child  is  in  heaven ! '  He  burst 
instantly  into  a  flood  of  tears,  and  sobbed  aloud.  He 
did  not  change  his  position,  but  remained  with  his 
face  buried  in  his  hands,  and  the  tears  pouring  like 
rain-drops  upon  the  hearth-stone.  And  thus  he  con- 
tinued, until  duty  compelled  me  to  leave  the  chamber 
of  death.  He  then  came  and  thanked  me,  and  said 
with  deep  emotion,  '  I  feel  greatly  comforted ;  my 
dear  child  has  gone  home.  It  was  God's  will  to  take 
her,  and  that  is  enough.'  " 


1841-1843.]  PROFESSIONAL  ADVANCEMENT.  71 


CHAPTER    III. 

1841-1843. 

Professional  Advancement  —  Letters  to  Richard  S.  Storrs,  Jr.  — 
Chosen  Senator  in  place  of  Mr.  Webster  —  Death  of  General 
Harrison  —  Eulogy  in  Faneuil  Hall  —  Extra  Session  of  Congress 
—  Speech  on  the  M'LeodCase  —  The  Fiscal  Bank  Bill  —  Collision 
with  Mr.  Clay  —  Nomination  of  Mr.  Everett  as  Minister  to  Eng- 
land —  Letter  to  Mr.  Sumner  —  Letters  to  his  Son  —  The  next 
Session  —  Speech  on  providing  further  Remedial  Justice  in  the 
United  States  Courts  —  Letters  to  Mr.  Sumner  —  The  North  East- 
ern Boundary  Question  —  Journal. 

MR.  CHOATE'S  professional  advancement  in  Boston 
was  no  accident,  nor  the  result  of  peculiarly  favoring 
circumstances.  It  was  the  reward  of  untiring  dili- 
gence as  well  as  of  great  ability.  Every  day  he 
was  gaining  ground,  enlarging  and  consolidating  his 
knowledge,  and  invigorating  his  faculties.  A  few 
years  served  to  give  him  a  position  second  to  none 
except  the  acknowledged  and  long-tried  leaders  of 
the  bar.  His  consummate  judgment  in  the  conduct 
of  a  cause,  no  less  than  his  brilliant  power  as  an 
advocate,  commanded  respect  from  the  most  able. 
He  knew  when  to  speak,  and,  what  is  more  difficult, 
when  to  be  silent.  In  the  most  intricate  and  doubt- 
ful case,  when  fairly  engaged,  he  did  not  allow  him- 
self to  despair,  and  was  often  successful  against  the 
greatest  odds.  In  defeat  he  was  never  sullen,  and  in 
victory  he  bore  himself  with  so  much  modesty  and 


72  MEMOIK  OF  KUFUS   CHOATE.         [CHAP.  III. 

gentleness,  that  few  envied  his  success.  He  espe- 
cially attached  to  himself  the  younger  members  of  the 
profession  by  unvarying  kindness.  He  had  great 
sympathy  for  a  young  lawyer.  His  advice  and  aid 
were  always  ready ;  voluntarily  offered  if  he  thought 
they  were  needed ;  and,  if  sought,  cheerfully  and 
freely  bestowed.  He  assumed  no  superiority  in  this 
intercourse,  but,  by  a  kind  suggestion  or  a  few  words 
of  encouragement,  insured  success  by  inspiring  con- 
fidence. 

The  following  letter  is  in  answer  to  one  asking  his 
advice  as  to  a  course  of  reading.  The  gentleman  to 
whom  it  was  written  had  entered  his  office  as  a  stu- 
dent, but  subsequently,  on  account  of  Mr.  Choate's 
probable  absence  from  Boston,  went  to  spend  a  year 
in  general  studies  at  Andover. 

To  KICHAED  S.  STORKS,  JK. 

"BOSTON,  2d  Jan.  1841. 

"  DEAR  SIR,  —  I  should  have  been  very  happy  to  answer 
your  letter  before  this,  but  a  succession  of  engagements,  some 
of  them  of  a  painful  kind,  have  made  it  impossible.  Even 
now  I  can  do  very  little  more  than  congratulate  you  on  being 
able  to  spend  a  year  at  such  a  place,  and  to  suggest  that  very 
general  '  macte  virtute,'  which  serves  only  to  express  good 
wishes  without  doing  any  thing  to  help  realize  them.  I 
should  be  embarrassed,  if  I  were  in  your  situation,  to  know 
exactly  what  to  do.  The  study  of  a  profession  is  a  prescribed 
and  necessary  course,  —  that  of  general  literature,  or  of  liter- 
ature preparatory  to  our,  or  to  any  profession,  is,  on  the  other 
hand,  so  limitless,  —  so  indeterminate,  —  so  much  a  matter 
of  taste,  —  it  depends  so  much  on  the  intellectual  and  moral 
traits  of  the  student,  what  he  needs  and  what  he  ought  to 
shun,  that  an  educated  young  man  can  really  judge  better  for 
himself  than  another  for  him. 

"  As  immediately  preparatory  to  the  study  of  the  Law,  I 
should  follow  the  usual  suggestion,  to  review  thoroughly  Eng- 
lish history,  —  Constitutional  history  in  Hallam  particularly, 


1841-1843.]        LETTERS  TO  R.  S.   STORKS,  JR.  73 

and  American  Constitutional  and  Civil  history  in  Pitkin  and 
Story.  Rutherford's  Institutes,  and  the  best  course  of  Moral 
Philosophy  you  can  find,  will  be  very  valuable  introductory 
consolidating  matter.  Aristotle's  Politics  and  all  of  Edmund 
Burke's  works,  and  all  of  Cicero's  works,  would  form  an  ad- 
mirable course  of  reading,  'a  library  of  eloquence  and  reason,' 
to  form  the  sentiments  and  polish  the  tastes,  and  fertilize  and 
enlarge  the  mind  of  a  young  man  aspiring  to  be  a  lawyer  and 
statesman.  Cicero  and  Burke  I  would  know  by  heart ;  both 
superlatively  great  —  the  latter  the  greatest,  living  in  a  later 
age,  belonging  to  the  modern  mind  and  genius,  though  the 
former  had  more  power  over  an  audience,  —  both  knew  every 
thing. 

"  I  would  read  every  day  one  page  at  least,  —  more  if  you 
can,  —  in  some  fine  English  writer,  solely  for  elegant  style 
and  expression.  "William  Pinkney  said  to  a  friend  of  mine 
'  he  never  read  a  fine  sentence  in  any  author  without  com- 
mitting it  to  memory.'  The  result  was  decidedly  the  most 
splendid  and  most  powerful  English  spoken  style  I  ever  heard. 

"  I  am  ashamed  to  have  written  so  hurriedly  in  the  midst 
of  a  trial,  but  I  preferred  it  to  longer  silence.  Accept  my 
best  wishes,  and  assure  yourself  I  am 

"Very  truly  yours,  R.  CHOATE." 

Subsequently,  when  Mr.  Storrs  decided  to  abandon 
the  study  of  law  for  a  theological  course,  Mr.  Choate 
wrote  him :  — 

"Mr  DEAR  SIR, —  I  have  just  received  your  letter  and 
hasten  to  say  that  I  have  been  much  interested  by  it.  The 
entire  result  has  been  much  as  I  anticipated ;  and,  all  con- 
siderations of  duty  apart,  I  am  inclined  to  think  as  a  mere 
matter  of  rational  happiness,  —  happiness  from  books,  culture, 
the  social  affections,  the  estimation  of  others,  and  a  sense 
of  general  usefulness  and  of  consideration,  you  have  chosen 
wisely.  Duty,  however,  I  think  was  clear,  and  when  it  is 
clear  it  is  peremptory. 

''  I  should  not  accept  a  fee,  of  course,  under  such  circum- 
stances, but  shall  expect  you  to  send  me  all  the  sermons  you 
print,  and  that  they  be  good  ones. 
"  I  am  very  truly 

"  Your  friend  and  serv't, 
"SENATE  CHAMBER,  "  RuFUS    CHOATE. 

"30th  March." 


74  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS  CHOATE.         [CHAP.  HI. 

In  1841,  Mr.  Webster  having  accepted  the  office  of 
Secretary  of  State  under  General  Harrison,  it  became 
necessary  for  the  Legislature  of  Massachusetts  to  elect 
another  Senator  to  fill  his  place.  The  position  was 
both  delicate  and  difficult.  The  public  wishes  soon 
pointed  to  Mr.  Choate,  and  his  friends  proceeded  to 
consult  him  about  the  matter.  The  offer  was  at  first 
met  by  a  decided  refusal,  nor  was  it  until  after  re- 
peated interviews,  and  the  greatest  urgency,  that  he 
finally  permitted  his  name  to  be  brought  before  the 
Legislature,  and  then  only  with  the  express  under- 
standing that  he  should  be  allowed  to  resign  the 
place  within  two  or  three  years.  The  causes  of  this 
reluctance  to  accept  so  high  and  honorable  and  at- 
tractive an  office  were  probably  many  and  compli- 
cated. His  natural  modesty,  a  distaste  for  the 
annoyances  of  public  life,  a  loathing  of  political 
schemers,  plans  of  study  and  achievement  with  which 
public  duties  would  interfere,  the  necessity  of  an 
income,  the  love  of  personal  independence,  —  all 
these  undoubtedly  influenced  his  judgment. 

Before  taking  his  seat,  the  new  Senator  was  called 
upon  to  deliver  a  eulogium  upon  the  lamented  Presi- 
dent, in  Faneuil  Hall.  It  was  a  sincere  and  eloquent 
tribute  to  one  whom  the  nation  loved  as  a  man  even 
more  than  it  respected  as  a  President.  General  Har- 
rison was  inaugurated  on  the  4th  of  March,  1841. 
He  died  on  the  4th  of  April,  before  having  had  time 
to  establish  distinctly  the  policy  of  the  administration, 
but  having  summoned  an  extra  session  of  Congress 
to  meet  on  the  31st  of  May.  The  Vice-President,  Mr. 
Tyler,  immediately  assumed  the  duties  of  the  Presi- 
dency, not  without  solicitude  on  the  part  of  the 


1841-1843.]        FIRST  SPEECH  IN  THE   SENATE.  75 

Whigs,  with  whom  he  had  not  always  been  identified, 
but  yet  with  prevailing  hopes.  "  The  President," 
says  Mr.  Choate  in  a  letter  shortly  after  reaching 
Washington,  "  is  in  high  spirits,  —  making  a  good 
impression.  He  will  stand  by  Mr.  Webster,  and  the 
talk  of  an  unfriendly  conservative  action  is  true,  but 
not  terrifying." 

Mr.  Choate's  first  speech  in  the  Senate  was  upon  a 
subject  on  which  the  public  mind  in  some  parts  of 
the  country  had  been  deeply  agitated,  and  which  in- 
volved difficult  questions  of  international  law.  It 
was  the  case  of  Alexander  M'Leod,  charged  with 
burning  the  Steamer  Caroline.  This  forward  and 
boastful  person,  who  seems  not  to  have  been  engaged 
at  all  in  the  exploit  in  which  he  had  professed  to  be 
a  prominent  actor,  having  ventured  into  the  State 
of  New  York,  was  arrested  on  an  indictment  found 
against  him  shortly  after  the  destruction  of  the  boat, 
and  held  for  trial  by  the  State  Courts.  The  British 
Government  assumed  the  act,  by  whomsoever  done, 
as  its  own,  and  through  its  minister,  Mr.  Fox,  de- 
manded the  release  of  the  prisoner.  This  demand 
could  not  be  complied  with,  since  the  prisoner  was 
arraigned  before  the  State  Courts ;  but  the  Attorney- 
General  of  the  United  States,  Mr.  Crittenden,  under 
the  direction  of  Mr.  Webster,  then  Secretary  of  State, 
was  sent  to  observe  the  trial  and  render  such  assist- 
ance as  should  be  proper  and  necessary.  The  subject 
was  brought  before  Congress  by  the  message  of  the 
President,  when  the  policy  of  the  Government,  and 
especially  the  instructions  and  letter  of  Mr.  Webster, 
were  severely  censured  by  Mr.  Benton,  Mr.  Buchanan, 
and  Mr.  Calhoun,  and  defended  by  Mr.  Rives,  Mr. 


76  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS  CHOATE.         [CHAP.  III. 

Choate,  Mr.  Huntington,  and  Mr.  Preston.  In 
the  House,  the  administration  was  sustained  with 
great  ability  by  John  Quincy  Adams  and  Mr.  Gush- 
ing. The  speech  of  Mr.  Choate  called  forth  warm 
commendations  from  all  parties.  "It  was  the  first 
appearance  of  the  Senator  in  debate  here,"  said  Mr. 
Buchanan,  in  his  reply,  "and,  judging  of  others  by 
myself,  I  must  say,  that  those  who  have  listened  to 
him  once  will  be  anxious  to  hear  him  again." 

It  was  during  this  extra  session,  when  Mr.  Choate 
was  quite  new  to  the  Senate,  that  a  slight  collision 
took  place  between  himself  and  Mr.  Clay,  the  nature 
and  importance  of  which  were,  perhaps  intentionally, 
exaggerated  by  the  party  newspapers.  ]VTr.  Clay  was 
the  leader  of  the  Whigs  in  the  Senate,  flushed  with 
success,  urgent  of  favorite  measures,  somewhat  dis- 
trustful of  the  new  President,  Mr.  Tyler,  and  excited 
by  a  report  of  the  formation  of  a  new  party  in  oppo- 
sition to  his  interests.  The  finances  of  the  country 
had,  for  several  years,  been  much  deranged,  and  the 
great  immediate  objects  of  the  Whigs,  on  coming 
into  power,  were  the  repeal  of  the  Independent 
Treasury  Acts,  the  re-establishing,  in  some  form, 
of  a  National  Bank,  and  an  adequate  provision  for 
the  public  revenue.  The  first  of  these  objects  was 
accomplished  without  difficulty  or  delay.  The  bill 
for  the  purpose  passed  the  Senate'  and  the  House  by 
large  majorities,  and  was  at  once  approved  by  the 
President.  The  second  object,  the  incorporation  of 
a  bank,  was  a  more  delicate  and  difficult  matter.  Mr. 
Tyler  was  known  to  be  opposed  to  the  old  United 
States  Bank,  though  it  was  thought  that  a  charter 
might  be  framed  to  which  he  would  have  no  objec- 


1841-1843.]  SPEECH  ON  BANK  BILL.  77 

tion.  Accordingly  Mr.  Clay,  early  in  the  session, 
moved  a  call  upon  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  Mr. 
Ewing,  for  the  plan  of  a  bank.  It  was  given,  and, 
coming  from  such  a  source,  was  presumed  to  be  in 
accordance  with  the  ideas  of  the  President.  Upon 
this  report  a  bill  was  modelled.  To  this  bill  Mr. 
Rives  of  Virginia  offered  an  amendment,  — -  which  he 
supported  by  an  able  argument,  —  making  the  assent 
of  the  States  necessary  for  the  establishment  of 
branches  within  their  limits.  Mr.  Clay  earnestly  op- 
posed the  proposition,  and  Mr.  Preston  with  equal 
earnestness  sustained  it.  On  the  next  day  Mr.  Choate 
made  a  short  speech  in  favor  of  Mr.  Rives's  amend- 
ment, not  because  he  doubted  the  constitutionality 
of  the  bill  as  reported  by  the  committee,  but  mainly 
from  considerations  of  policy. 

"  I  do  not  vote  for  the  bill,"  he  said,  "  from  any 
doubt  of  the  constitutional  power  of  Congress  to  es- 
tablish branches  all  over  the  States,  possessing  the 
discounting  function,  directly  and  adversely  against 
their  united  assent.  I  differ  in  this  particular  wholly 
from  the  Senator  who  moves  the  amendment.  I  have 
no  more  doubt  of  your  power  to  make  such  a  bank 
and  such  branches  anywhere,  than  of  your  power  to 
build  a  post-office  or  a  custom-house  anywhere.  This 
question  for  me  is  settled,  and  settled  rightly.  I  have 
the  honor  and  happiness  to  concur  on  it  with  all,  or 
almost  all,  our  greatest  names  ;  with  our  national  ju- 
dicial tribunal,  and  with  both  the  two  great  original 
political  parties  ;  with  Washington,  Hamilton,  Mar- 
shall, Story,  Madison,  Monroe,  Crawford,  and  with 
the  entire  Republican  administration  and  organiza- 
tion of  1816  and  1817. 


78  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS  CHOATE.         [CHAP.  III. 

"  But  it  does  not  follow,  because  we  possess  this  or 
any  other  power,  that  it  is  wise  or  needful,  in  any 
given  case,  to  attempt  to  exert  it.  We  may  find  our- 
selves so  situated  that  we  cannot  do  it  if  we  would, 
for  want  of  the  concurrence  of  other  judgments  ;  and 
therefore  a  struggle  might  be  as  unavailing  as  it 
would  be  mischievous  and  unseemly.  We  may  find 
ourselves  so  situated  that  we  ought  not  to  do  it  if  we 
could.  All  things  which  are  lawful  are  not  conven- 
ient, are  not  practicable,  are  not  wise,  are  not  safe, 
are  not  kind.  A  sound  and  healing  discretion,  there- 
fore, the  moral  coercion  of  irresistible  circumstances, 
may  fitly  temper  and  even  wholly  restrain  the  exer- 
cise of  the  clearest  power  ever  belonging  to  human 
government." 

He  then  proceeded  to  state  his  reasons  for  voting 
for  the  amendment.  The  first  was,  that  the  country 
greatly  needed  the  bank,  and  in  his  opinion  that  re- 
sult would  be  much  sooner  and  more  surely  reached 
by  admitting  the  bill  as  amended.  "  By  uniting  here 
on  this  amendment,"  he  said,  "you  put  an  effective 
bank  in  operation,  to  some  useful  and  substantial  ex- 
tent, by  the  first  of  January.  Turn  now  to  the  other 
alternative.  Sir,  if  you  adhere  to  the  bill  reported  by 
the  Committee,  I  fully  believe  you  pass  no  bank  char- 
ter this  session.  I  doubt  whether  you  carry  it  through 
Congress.  If  you  can,  I  do  not  believe  you  can  make 
it  a  law.  I  have  no  doubt  you  will  fail  to  do  so.  I 
do  not  enter  on  the  reasons  of  my  belief.  The  rules 
of  orderly  proceeding  here,  decorum,  pride,  regret, 
would  all  prevent  my  doing  it.  I  have  no  personal 
or  private  grounds  for  the  conviction  which  holds  me 
fast ;  but  I  judge  on  notorious,  and  to  my  mind,  de- 


1841-1843.]  SPEECH   ON  BANK  BILL.  79 

cisive  indications ;  and  I  know  that  it  is  my  duty  to 
act  on  my  belief,  whether  well  or  ill  founded,  and 
however  conjecturally  derived." 

Another  reason  assigned  for  his  vote  was,  that  it 
would  lead  to  united  counsels  and  actions. 

"  In  a  larger  view  of  the  matter,"  he  went  on  to 
say,  "  is  it  not  in  a  high  degree  desirable  to  make 
such  a  charter,  that  while  it  secures  to  the  people  all 
that  such  kind  of  instrumentality  as  a  bank  can 
secure,  we  may  still,  in  the  mode  and  details  of  the 
thing,  respect  the  scruples  and  spare  the  feelings  of 
those  who,  just  as  meritoriously,  usefully,  and  con- 
spicuously as  yourselves,  are  members  of  our  political 
association,  but  who  differ  with  you  on  the  question 
of  constitutional  power  ?  If  I  can  improve  the  local 
currency,  diffuse  a  sound  and  uniform  national  one, 
facilitate,  cheapen,  and  systematize  the  exchanges, 
secure  the  safe-keeping  and  transmission  of  the  pub- 
lic money,  promote  commerce,  and  deepen  and  mul- 
tiply the  springs  of  a  healthful  credit  by  a  bank,  and 
can  at  the  same  time  so  do  it  as  to  retain  the  cordial 
constant  co-operation,  and  prolong  the  public  useful- 
ness of  friends  who  hold  a  different  theory  of  the  Con- 
stitution, is  it  not  just  so  much  clear  gain  ?  I  was 
struck,  in  listening  to  the  senator  from  Virginia  yester- 
day, with  the  thought,  how  idle,  how  senseless  it  is  to 
spend  time  in  deploring  or  being  peevish  about  the  in- 
veterate constitutional  opinions  of  the  community  he  so 
ably  represents.  There  the  opinions  are.  What  will 
you  do  with  them?  You  cannot  change  them.  You  can- 
not stride  over  or  disregard  them.  There  they  are  ; 
what  will  you  do  with  them  ?  Compromise  the  matter. 
Adjust  it,  if  you  can,  in  such  sort  that  they  shall 


80  MEMOIR   OF  RUTUS   CHOATE.          [€HAP.  IIL 

neither  yield   their  opinions,  nor   you   yield   yours. 
Give  to  the  people  all  the  practical  good  which  a 
bank  can  give,  and  let  the  constitutional  question, 
whether  Congress  can  make  a  bank  by  its  own  power 
or  not,  stand  over  for  argument  on  the  last  day  of  the 
Greek  Kalends,  when  the  disputants  may  have  the 
world  all  to  themselves  to  wrangle  it  out  in  !     Yes, 
Sir,  compromise  it.   Our  whole  history  is  but  a  history 
of  compromises.     You  have  compromised  in  larger 
things  ;  do  it  in  less,  do  it  in  this.    You  have  done  it 
for  the  sake  of  the  Union  ;  do  it  for  the  sake  of  the 
party  which  is  doing  it  for  the  sake  of  the  Union. 
You  never  made  one  which  was  received  with  wider 
and  sincerer  joy  than  this  would  be.    Do  it  then.    Do 
as  your  fathers  did  when  they  came  together,  dele- 
gates from  the  slave  States,  and  delegates  from  the 
free,  representatives  of  planters,   of  mechanics,   of 
manufacturers,  and  the  owners  of  ships,  the  cool  and 
slow  New  England  men,  and  the  mercurial  children 
of  the  sun,  and  sat  down  side  by  side  in  the  presence 
of  Washington,  to  frame  this  more  perfect  Union. 
Administer  the  Constitution  in  the  temper  that  cre- 
ated it.     Do  as  you  have  yourselves  done  in  more 
than  one  great  crisis  of  your  affairs,  when  questions 
of  power  and  of  administration  have  shaken  these 
halls  and  this  whole  country,  and  an  enlarged  and 
commanding  spirit,  not   yet   passed   away  from  our 
counsels,  assisted   you   to   rule   the   uproar,  and   to 
pour  seasonable  oil  on  the  rising  sea.     Happy,  thrice 
happy,  for  us  all,  if  the  senator  from  Kentucky  would 
allow  himself  to-day  to  win  another  victory  of  con- 
ciliation."   ........ 

"  Let  me  say,  Sir,"  he  went  on  after  a  brief  inter- 


1841-1843.]  SPEECH  OX  BANK  BILL.  81 

vening  statement  on  the  nature  of  the  amendment, 
"  that  to  administer  the  contested  powers  of  the  Con- 
stitution is,  for  those  of  you  who  believe  that  they 
exist,  at  all  times  a  trust  of  difficulty  and  delicacy.  I 
do  not  know  that  I  should  not  venture  to  suggest 
this  general  direction  for  the  performance  of  that 
grave  duty.  Steadily  and  strongly  assert  their  exist- 
ence ;  do  not  surrender  them ;  retain  them  with  a 
providenVforecast ;  for  the  time  may  come  when  you 
will  need  to  enforce  them  by  the  whole  moral  and 
physical  strength  of  the  Union  ;  but  do  not  exert 
them  at  all  so  long  as  you  can,  by  other  less  offensive 
expedients  of  wisdom,  effectually  secure  to  the  people 
all  the  practical  benefits  which  you  believe  they  were 
inserted  into  the  Constitution  to  secure.  Thus  will 
the  Union  last  longest,  and  do  most  good.  To  exer- 
cise a  contested  power  without  necessity,  on  a  notion 
of  keeping  up  the  tone  of  government,  is  not  much 
better  than  tyranny,  and  very  improvident  and  im- 
politic tyranny,  too.  It  is  turning  '  extreme  medicine 
into  daily  bread.'  It  forgets  that  the  final  end  of 
government  is  not  to  exert  restraint,  but  to  do  good. 

"  Within  this  general  view  of  the  true  mode  of 
administering  contested  powers,  I  think  the  measure 
we  propose  is  as  wise  as  it  is  conciliatory ;  wise  be- 
cause it  is  conciliatory ;  wise  because  it  reconciles  a 
strong  theory  of  the  Constitution  with  a  discreet  and 
kind  administration  of  it.  I  desire  to  give  the  coun- 
try a  bank.  Well,  here  is  a  mode  in  which  I  can  do 
it.  Shall  I  refuse  to  do  it  in  that  mode  because  I 
cannot  at  the  same  time  and  by  the  same  operation 
gain  a  victory  over  the  settled  constitutional  opin- 
ions, and  show  my  contempt  for  the  ancient  and 

6 


82  MEMOIR   OF   RUFUS   CHOATE.         [CHAP.  III. 

unappeasable  jealousy  and  prejudices  of  not  far  from 
half  of  the  American  people?  Shall  I  refuse  to  do 
it  in  that  mode  because  I  cannot  at  the  same  time 
and  by  the  same  operation  win  a  triumph  of  consti- 
tutional law  over  political  associates  who  agree  with 
me  on  nine  in  ten  of  all  the  questions  which  divide 
the  parties  of  the  country ;  whose  energies  and  elo- 
quence, under  many  an  October  and  many  an  August 
sun,  have  contributed  so  much  to  the  transcendent 
reformation  which  has  brought  you  into  power  ? 

"  There  is  one  consideration  more  which  has  had 
some  influence  in  determining  my  vote.  I  confess 
that  I  think  that  a  bank  established  in  the  manner 
contemplated  by  this  amendment  stands,  in  the  act- 
ual circumstances  of  our  time,  a  chance  to  lead  a 
quieter  and  more  secure  life,  so  to  speak,  than  a 
bank  established  by  the  bill.  I  think  it  worth  our 
while  to  try  to  make,  what  never  yet  was  seen,  a 
popular  National  Bank.  Judging  from  the  past  and 
the  present,  from  the  last  years  of  the  last  bank,  and 
the  manner  in  which  its  existence  was  terminated ; 
from  the  tone  of  debate  and  of  the  press,  and  the 
general  indications  of  public  opinion,  I  acknowledge 
an  apprehension  that  such  an  institution,  —  created 
by  a  direct  exertion  of  your  power,  throwing  off  its 
branches  without  regard  to  the  wishes  or  wants  of 
the  States,  as  judged  of  by  themselves,  and  without 
any  attempt  to  engage  their  auxiliary  co-operation, 
diminishing  the  business  and  reducing  the  profits  of 
the  local  banks,  and  exempted  from  their  burdens, 
—  that  such  an  institution  may  not  find  so  quiet 
and  safe  a  field  of  operation  as  is  desirable  for  use- 
fulness and  profit.  I  do  not  wish  to  see  it  standing 


1841-1843.]  SPEECH  ON  BANK  BILL.  83 

like  a  fortified  post  on  a  foreign  border,  —  never 
wholly  at  peace,  always  assailed,  always  belligerent ; 
not  falling  perhaps,  but  never  safe,  the  nurse  and  the 
prize  of  unappeasable  hostility.  No,  Sir.  Even  such 
an  institution,  under  conceivable  circumstances,  it 
might  be  our  duty  to  establish  and  maintain  in  the 
face  of  all  opposition  and  to  the  last  gasp.  But  so 
much  evil  attends  such  a  state  of  things,  so  much 
insecurity,  so  much  excitement ;  it  would  be  exposed 
to  the  pelting  of  such  a  pitiless  storm  of  the  press 
and  public  speech ;  so  many  demagogues  would  get 
good  livings  by  railing  at  it ;  so  many  honest  men 
would  really  regard  it  as  unconstitutional,  and  as 
dangerous  to  business  and  liberty,  —  that  it  is  worth 
an  exertion  to  avoid  it.  ...  Sir,  I  desire  to  see  the 
Bank  of  the  United  States  become  a  cherished  do- 
mestic institution,  reposing  in  the  bosom  of  our  law 
and  of  our  attachments.  Established  by  the  concur- 
rent action  or  on  the  application  of  the  States,  such 
might  be  its  character.  There  will  be  a  struggle  on 
the  question  of  admitting  the  discount  power  into 
the  States  ;  much  good  sense  and  much  nonsense  will 
be  spoken  and  written ;  but  such  a  struggle  will  be 
harmless  and  brief,  and  when  that  is  over,  all  is  over. 
The  States  which  exclude  it  will  hardly  exasperate 
themselves  farther  about  it.  Those  which  admit  it 
will  soothe  themselves  with  the  consideration  that 
the  act  is  their  own,  and  that  the  existence  of  this 
power  of  the  branch  is  a  perpetual  recognition  of 
their  sovereignty.  Thus  might  it  sooner  cease  to 
wear  the  alien,  aggressive,  and  privileged  aspect 
which  has  rendered  it  offensive,  and  become  sooner 
blended  with  the  mass  of  domestic  interests,  cherished 


84  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS  CHOATE.         [CHAP.  IIL 

by  the  same  regards,  protected  by  the  same  and  by 
a  higher  law."  l 

It  was  during  this  speech  that  Mr.  Clay,  who  had 
left  his  own  seat,  and,  through  the  courtesy  of  a 
younger  member,  had  taken  another  nearer  Mr. 
Choate,  rose  and  interrupted  the  speaker  with  an 
inquiry  as  to  the  grounds  of  his  knowledge  that  the 
Bank  Bill  would  not  pass  without  the  amendment. 
The  intimacy  of  Mr.  Choate  with  Mr.  Webster,  then 
Secretary  of  State,  gave  a  weight  to  his  words,  and 
the  implication  in  Mr.  Clay's  question  evidently  was, 
that  he  had  derived  his  knowledge,  directly  or  indi- 
rectly, from  the  President  himself.  In  a  subsequent 
part  of  the  discussion,  Mr.  Archer,  in  opposing  the 
amendment  of  Mr.  Rives,  took  occasion  to  express 
his  regret  that  the  Senator  from  Kentucky  had  en- 
deavored to  draw  from  Mr.  Choate  the  opinions  of 
the  Executive.  Mr.  Clay  rose  to  explain,  and  this 
led  to  a  sharp  interlocutory  debate  between  himself 
and  Mr.  Choate,  which  ended  by  Mr.  Clay's  inter- 
rupting Mr.  Choate  in  the  midst  of  an  explanation, 
and  saying,  "  That,  Sir,  is  not  the  thing.  Did  you 
not  say  that  you  could  not,  without  breach  of  privi- 
lege and  violation  of  parliamentary  rule,  disclose  your 
authority?  "  "  Sir,"  replied  Mr.  Choate,  "I  insist  on 
my  right  to  explain  what  I  did  say  in  my  own  words." 
Mr.  Clay  persisted  in  requesting  a  direct  answer,  and 
Mr.  Choate  replied  again,  "that  he  would  have  to 
take  the  answer  as  he  chose  to  give  it  to  him."  The 
parties  were  here  called  to  order,  and  the  President 
requested  both  gentlemen  to  take  their  seats.  .That 
Mr.  Clay  in  this,  bringing  all  the  weight  of  his  ex- 

1  Appendix  to  Congressional  Globe,  July,  1841,  pp.  355,  356. 


1841-1843.]  DEBATE   ON  EVERETT.  85 

perience,  age,  character,  and  long  public  life  to  bear 
upon  a  member  of  his  own  party,  new  to  the  Sen- 
ate, and  not  yet  practically  familiar  with  its  usages, 
should  have  seemed  overbearing  and  arrogant,  was 
unavoidable,  and  it  might  have  justified  a  sharper 
retort  than  was  given.  I  have  been  informed  by 
those  who  were  present  that  the  impression  in  the 
senate  chamber  was  much  less  than  it  was  repre- 
sented by  the  newspapers,  especially  by  those  opposed 
to  Mr.  Clay  and  the  Whig  party.  But  whatever 
may  have  been  the  feeling  of  the  moment,  at  the 
meeting  of  the  Senate  on  the  next  day,  Mr.  Clay 
with  great  magnanimity  and  earnestness  denied  the 
intention  which  had  been  imputed  to  him,  and  dis- 
claimed entirely  the  design  of  placing  the  Senator 
from  Massachusetts  in  a  questionable  position.  Those 
who  were  present  were  struck  with  the  nobleness  of 
the  apology,  and  Mr.  Choate,  of  all  men  the  most 
gentle  and  placable,  went  round  to  Mr.  Clay  who 
sat  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  chamber,  and  made 
open  demonstration  of  reconciliation. 

Another  matter  which  interested  Mr.  Choate  very 
much  during  this  session  was  the  confirmation  of  Mr. 
Everett  as  Minister  to  England.  The  nomination, 
which  was  regarded  by  all  right-minded  people  as 
one  of  the  most  appropriate  that  could  be  made,  was 
fiercely  assailed  on  account  of  an  opinion  which  Mr. 
Everett  had  once  given  in  favor  of  the  right  and 
duty  of  Congress  to  abolish  slavery  in  the  District 
of  Columbia.  He  was  charged  with  being  an  "abo- 
litionist," a  word  of  indefinite  but  fearful  import. 
Mr.  Choate  felt  that  the  rejection  of  a  minister  on 
grounds  so  intangible,  so  untenable,  and  so  inade- 


86  MEMOIR   OF   RUFUS   CHOATE.         [CHAP.  III. 

quate,  would  be  for  the  disgrace  of  the  country,  and 
he  exerted  himself  to  the  utmost  to  prevent  such  a 
result.  Those  who  heard  his  principal  speech  in 
favor  of  the  nomination  considered  it  one  of  the 
most  brilliant  and  eloquent  ever  delivered  within 
the  walls  of  the  senate  chamber.1 

A  member  of  the  Senate  who  was  present  during 
the  debate,  in  a  letter  written  to  Mr.  Choate  many 
years  afterwards,  thus  recalls  the  scene:  "My  dear 
Sir,  Mr.  Buchanan's  nomination  brings  up  some  rem- 
iniscences of  you  and  of  him,  which  are  by  no  means 
pleasant  to  me,  now  that  there  is  a  possibility  he  may 
be  President.  I  refer,  of  course,  to  the  lead  he  took 
on  one  side  and  you  on  the  other,  in  the  debate  which 
preceded  Mr.  Everett's  confirmation  as  Minister  to 
London.  I  well  remember  the  cogency  and  splendor 
of  your  argument,  and  the  emotion  it  raised  in  Pres- 
ton, who,  completely  overpowered  by  the  conviction 
to  which  you  brought  him,  exclaimed,  boiling  with 

excitement,  '  I  shall  have  to  vote  "  No,"  but  by 

HE  SHALL  NOT  BE  REJECTED.'2  With  all  my  ad- 
miration for  your  effort,  the  whole  scene  was  deeply 
painful  and  humiliating  to  me,  more  so,  probably, 
than  to  any  man  in  the  chamber.  I  was  indignant 
beyond  the  power  of  language  at  the  requirement 
of  the  South,  that  the  nomination  should  be  voted 
down,  and  the  nominee  branded  as  unfit  to  represent 
his  country  at  the  British  Court,  simply  and  solely 
because  he  had  replied  to  the  question  put  to  him, 

1  There  are  no  remains  of  this  speech,  which  was  delivered  in 
executive  session,  with  closed  doors. 

2  I  have  understood  that  Colonel  Preston,  when   afterwards  on 
a  visit  to  Boston,  told  a  friend  that  he  never  regretted  any  vote  he 
had  given  as  he  did  that  against  Mr.  Everett. 


1841-1843.]        LETTER   TO   CHARLES   SUMNER.  87 

that  Congress  might  and  ought  to  abolish  slavery  in 
the  District  of  Columbia.  B.'s  hostility  was  vindic- 
tive and  savage.  He  distinctly  and  emphatically 
denounced  Mr.  E.  as  an  '  abolitionist,'  for  this  and 
this  only,  disclaiming  all  opposition  to  him  as  a 
Whig,  or  as  otherwise  objectionable." 

Mr.  Clay  made  a  powerful  speech  in  favor  of  the 
nomination,  and  said  that  if  it  was  rejected,  there 
would  never  be  another  President  of  the  United 
States.  A  familiar  letter  to  Mr.  Sumner,  then  prom- 
inent among  the  younger  members  of  the  Whig  party, 
alludes  to  this  among  other  things.  Though  with- 
out date  (for  this  was  one  of  the  points  of  a  letter 
about  which  Mr.  Choate  was  habitually  careless),  it 
must  have  been  written  in  September,  1841,  Congress 
adjourning  on  the  13th  of  that  month,  and  the  Senate 
not  confirming  the  nomination  till  very  near  the  close 
of  the  session. 

To  CHARLES  SUMNER,  ESQ. 

"  WASHINGTON. 

"Mr  DEAR  SUMNER, — I  have  just  received  the  memoran- 
dum, and  will  turn  it  nocturna  et  diurna  manu,  —  to  quote 
obscure  and  unusual  Latin  words.  I  hope  it  will  do  your 
friend's  business,  and  the  Pope's  and  England's,  and  the  lone 
Imperial  mother's  —  as  you  say. 

"  Mr.  Webster  is  so  much  excited  (and,  confidentially, 
gratified)  with  the  squaboshment  of  the  Whigs  l  that  he  will 
talk  of  nothing  else.  He  thinks  he  can  seal  better  with  Sir 
Robert  Peel  et  id  genus.  Can  he?  Your  acquaintance  was 
made  with  so  whiggish  a  set,  that  I  suppose  you  mourn  as  for 
the  flight  of  liberty.  But,  mark  you,  how  much  more  peace- 
ably, purely,  intellectually,  did  this  roaring  democracy  of  ours 
change  its  whole  government  and  whole  policy,  last  fall,  than 
England  has  done  it  now. 

"  Yes,  Everett's  is  a  good  appointment.     Ask  me,  when  I 

1  Lord  Melbourne's  ministry. 


88  MEMOIK  OF  RUFUS  CHOATE.         [CHAP.  IIL 

get  home,  if  we  did  not  come  near  losing  him  in  the  Senate 
from  Abolitionism; — entre  nous, — if  we  do,  the  Union  goes 
to  pieces  like  a  potter's  vessel.  But  as  Ercles'  vein  is  not 
lightly  nor  often  to  be  indulged  in,  —  (nee  Deus  intersit  nisi, 
&c.),  —  I  give  love  to  Hillard,  salute  you,  and  am  very  truly 
"Yours,  RUFCS  CHOATE." 

"  P.  S.  —  We  shall  have  a  veto  after  all,  ut  timeo" 

The  veto,  the  second  veto,  was  sent  in  September 
9,  and  Congress  adjourned  the  13th. 

A  few  letters  to  his  son,  then  about  seven  years  old, 
and  at  school  in  Essex,  will  show  the  affectionate, 
playful,  yet  earnest  character  of  his  intercourse  with 
his  children. 

To  RUFUS  CHOATE,  JR. 

"WASHINGTON,  30th  May,  1841. 

"  MY  DEAR  SON,  —  It  is  just  a  week  to-day  since  I  kissed 
you  a  good-by,  and  now  I  am  five  hundred  miles,  or  nearly 
so,  from  you.  I  feel  quite  sad  to  think  of  it ;  and  if  I  did  not 
suppose  you  were  a  good  boy,  and  at  the  head,  and  going  on 
fast  with  the  Latin,  I  should  feel  still  worse.  But  I  hope 
you  love  books  better  and  better  every  day.  You  will  learn 
one  of  these  days  who  it  is  that  says,  '  Come,  my  best  friends, 
my  books.'  I  suppose  you  have  no  roses  yet  at  Essex,  or 
green  peas,  or  mown  grass,  —  though  you  used  to  say  that 
you  saw  every  thing  there  nearly.  Here,  the  whole  city  is  in 
blossom.  They  are  making  hay ;  and  rose-bushes  bend  under 
their  loads  of  red  and  white  roses.  Can  you  tell  now,  by 
your  geography,  why  the  season  is  so  much  earlier  here  than 
at  Essex,  —  especially  considering  what  a  handsome  place 
Essex  is,  and  what  a  good  school  you  go  to,  and  how  much 

pains  cousin  M takes  with  you  ?     You  must  answer  this 

question  in  your  letter  to  me,  and  think  all  about  it  yourself. 

"  I  hope  you  will  write  to  your  mother  and  the  girls  often. 
They  all  love  you  dearly,  and  want  to  hear  from  you  every 
day.  Besides,  it  does  one  good  to  sit  down  and  write  home. 
It  fills  his  heart  full  of  affection  and  of  pleasant  recollections. 
.  .  .  Write  me  soon. 

u  Your  affectionate  father, 

"  Horns  CHOATE." 


1841-1843.]         LETTERS    TO   HIS    CHILDREN.  89 


To  RUFUS  CHOATE,  JR. 

"  Mr  DEAK  RUFUS,  —  Your  mother  and  dear  sisters  have 
you  so  far  away,  that  I  want  to  put  my  own  arm  around  your 
neck,  and  having  whispered  a  little  in  your  ear,  give  you  a 
kiss.  I  hope,  first,  that  you  are  good ;  and  next  that  you  are 
well  and  studious,  and  among  the  best  scholars.  If  that  is 
so,  I  am  willing  you  should  play  every  day,  after,  or  out  of, 
school,  till  the  blood  is  ready  to  burst  from  your  cheeks. 
There  is  a  place  or  two,  according  to  my  recollections  of  your 
time  of  life,  in  the  lane,  where  real,  good,  solid  satisfaction, 
in  the  way  of  play,  may  be  had.  But  I  do  earnestly  hope  to 
hear  a  great  account  of  your  books  and  progress  when  I  get 

home.       Love  cousin  M ,  and  all  your  school  and  play 

mates,  and  love  the  studies  which  will  make  you  wise,  useful, 
and  happy,  when  there  shall  be  no  blood  at  all  to  be  seen  in 
your  cheeks  or  lips. 

"  Your  explanation  of  the  greater  warmth  of  weather  here 
than  at  Essex  is  all  right.  Give  me  the  sun  of  Essex,  how- 
ever, I  say,  for  all  this.  One  half-hour,  tell  grandmother, 
under  those  cherished  button-woods,  is  worth  a  month  under 
these  insufferable  fervors.  ...  I  hope  I  shall  get  home  in 
a  month.  Be  busy,  affectionate,  obedient,  my  dear,  only 
boy. 

"Your  father,  RUFUS  CHOATE." 

Every  letter  to  his  children  at  this  period  is  replete 
with  affection,  and  kind  suggestions  and  hopes.  "  Do 
not  play  with  bad  boys.  Love  good  ones.  Love  your 
teacher,  and  see  if  you  cannot  go  to  the  head  of  your 
own  age  of  boys.  ...  I  expect  to  find  all  of  you 
grown.  If  I  find  the  beautiful  feelings  and  bright 
minds  grown  too,  I  shall  leap  for  joy.  .  .  .  Give  my 
love  to  all.  Tell  only  truth  ;  and  be  just,  kind,  and 
courageous.  Good-by,  rny  darling  boy." 

And  again  to  two  of  his  children  :  "  I  hope  you  are 
well,  obedient,  affectionate,  and  studious.  You  must 
learn  to  take  care  of  yourselves  alone,  your  clothes, 
books,  the  place  you  sleep  in,  and  of  all  your  ways. 


90  MEMOIR  OF   RUFUS   CHOATE.        [CHAP.  HI. 

Be  pleasant,  brave,  and  fond  of  books.  I  want  to 
hear  that  you  are  both  good  scholars,  but  chiefly  that 
you  are  true,  honest,  and  kind.  .  .  .  Give  best  love 
to  all  at  Essex.  Go,  especially,  and  give  my  love  to 
grandmother,  who  was  the  best  of  mothers  to  your 
father,  and  help  her  all  you  can." 

The  next  session  of  Congress  opened  with  consid- 
erable apprehension  and  distrust  in  all  minds.  The 
Whigs  had  broken  with  the  President,  and,  though 
powerful,  were  disheartened,  and  unable  to  accomplish 
their  cherished  purposes.  At  the  same  time,  ques- 
tions of  great  public  importance  were  pressing  upon 
the  attention  of  the  government.  During  the  session 
Mr.  Choate  spoke  on  the  Bankrupt  Law,  in  favor  of 
Mr.  Clay's  Resolution  for  Retrenchment  and  Reform, 
on  the  Naval  Appropriation  Bill,  on  the  Tariff,  and 
on  the  Bill  to  provide  further  Remedial  Justice  in 
the  Courts  of  the  United  States. 

This  last-named  bill  was  introduced  by  Mr.  Ber- 
rien,  then  Chairman  of  the  Judiciary  Committee,  in 
order  to  meet  such  cases  as  that  of  McLeod's  by  ex- 
tending the  jurisdiction  of  the  United  States  Courts. 
It  was  regarded  as  of  very  great  consequence,  so 
nearly  had  the  nation  been  plunged  into  war  by  pro- 
ceedings for  which  the  general  government  could 
have  no  responsibility.  The  bill  was  supported  by 
the  Whigs  generally,  and  opposed  by  the  Democrats, 
under  the  lead  of  Mr.  Buchanan.  Mr.  Choate  sup- 
ported it  on  the  two  grounds  of  constitutionality  and 
of  expedienc}r,  and  closed  a  generous  and  statesman- 
like yet  severe  argument  in  these  words  :  "  The  hon- 
orable senator  is  against  your  jurisdiction  in  all  forms 
and  in  all  stages.  Sir,  I  cannot  concur  with  him.  I 


1841-1843.]  SPEECH  IN  THE   SENATE.  91 

would  assert  the  jurisdiction,  on  the  contrary,  on  the 
same  grand,  general  reason  for  which  it  was  given  to 
you.  It  was  given  as  a  means  of  enabling  you  to 
preserve  honorable  peace,  or  to  secure  the  next  best 
thing,  a  just  war,  —  a  war  into  which  we  may  carry 
the  sympathies,  and  the  praise,  and  the  assistance  of 
the  world.  Accept  and  exert  it  for  these  great  ends. 
Do  not  be  deterred  from  doing  so,  and  from  doing  so 
now,  by  what  the  honorable  senator  so  many  times 
repeated  to  you,  that  negotiations  are  pending  with 
England ;  that  she  has  insulted  and  menaced  you, 
and  withheld  reparation,  and  withheld  apology  ;  and 
that,  therefore,  the  passage  of  the  bill,  at  this  moment, 
would  be  an  unmanly  and  unseasonable  courtesy  or 
concession  to  her.  How  much  England  knows  or 
cares  about  the  passage  of  this  bill ;  what  new  rea- 
son it  may  afford  to  the  '  Foreign  Quarterly  Review ' 
for  predicting  the  approach  of  his  monarchical  millen- 
nium in  America,  we  need  not,  I  believe  no  one  here 
need,  know  or  care.  But  does  it  mark  unmanly  fear 
of  England,  an  unmanly  haste  to  propitiate  her  good- 
will, because  I  would  commit  the  quiet  and  the  glory 
of  my  country  to  you?  Where  should  the  peace  of 
the  nation  repose  but  beneath  the  folds  of  the  nation's 
flag?  Do  not  fear,  either,  that  you  are  about  to  un- 
dervalue the  learning,  abilities,  and  integrity  of  the 
State  tribunals.  Sir,  my  whole  life  has  been  a  con- 
stant experience  of  their  learning,  abilities,  and  integ- 
rity ;  but  I  do  not  conceive  that  I  distrust  or  disparage 
them,  when  I  have  the  honor  to  agree  with  the  Con- 
stitution itself,  that  yours  are  the  hands  to  hold  the 
mighty  issues  of  peace  and  war. 

"Mr.    President,   how  strikingly  all   things,  and 


92  MEMOIR   OF  RUFUS   CHOATE.        [CHAP.  IH. 

every  passing  hour,  illustrate  the  wisdom  of  those 
great  men  who  looked  to  the  Union,  —  the  Union 
under  a  general  government,  —  for  the  preservation 
of  peace,  at  home  and  abroad,  between  us  and  the 
world,  among  the  States  and  in  each  State.  Turn 
your  eyes  eastward  and  northward,  and  see  how  this 
vast  but  restrained  and  parental  central  power  holds 
at  rest  a  thousand  spirits,  a  thousand  elements  of 
strife !  There  is  Maine.  How  long  would  it  be,  if 
she  were  independent,  before  her  hardy  and  gallant 
children  would  pour  themselves  over  the  disputed 
territory  like  the  flakes  of  her  own  snow-storms? 
How  long,  if  New  York  were  so,  before  that  tumult- 
uous frontier  would  blaze  with  ten  thousand  'bale- 
fires'? Our  own  beautiful  and  beloved  Rhode  Island 
herself,  with  which  the  Senator  rebukes  you  for  inter- 
fering,—  is  it  not  happy  even  for  her  that  her  star, 
instead  of  shining  alone  and  apart  in  the  sky,  blends 
its  light  with  so  many  kindred  rays,  whose  influence 
may  save  it  from  shooting  madly  from  its  sphere  ? 

"  The  aspect  which  our  United  America  turns  upon 
foreign  nations,  the  aspect  which  the  Constitution 
designs  she  shall  turn  on  them,  the  guardian  of  our 
honor,  the  guardian  of  our  peace,  is,  after  all,  her 
grandest  and  her  fairest  aspect.  We  have  a  right  to 
be  proud  when  we  look  on  that.  Happy  and  free 
empress  mother  of  States  themselves  free,  unagitated 
by  the  passions,  unmoved  by  the  dissensions  of  any 
one  of  them,  she  watches  the  rights  and  fame  of  all, 
and  reposing,  secure  and  serene,  among  the  mountain 
summits  of  her  freedom  she  holds  in  one  hand  the 
fair  olive-branch  of  peace,  and  in  the  other  the  thun- 
derbolt and  meteor  flag  of  reluctant  and  rightful  war. 


1841-1843.]         LETTERS   TO   CHARLES   SUMNER.  93 

There  may  she  sit  for  ever ;  the  stars  of  union  upon 
her  brow,  the  rock  of  independence  beneath  her  feet! 
Mr.  President,  it  is  because  this  bill  seems  to  me  well 
calculated  to  accomplish  one  of  the  chief  original  ends 
of  the  Constitution  that  it  has  my  hearty  support." 

A  few  extracts  from  private  letters  will  indicate 
some  of  the  other  topics  which  interested  him  during 
the  session.  January  24th  he  wrote  to  Mr.  Sumner : 
"  Lord  Morpeth  is  come  and  pleases  universally.  He 
attends  our  atrocious  spectacles  in  the  House  with 
professional  relish."  And  a  little  later :  — 

"  I  have  received  and  transmitted  your  papers  for  Lieber ; 
and  read  the  D.  A.1  with  edification  and  assent.  We  are 
wrong.  Lieber  sent  me  a  strong  paper  on  the  same  subject. 
He  is  the  most  fertile,  indomitable,  unsleeping,  combative, 
and  propagandizing  person  of  his  race.  I  have  bought 
'  Longfellow,'  and  am  glad  to  hear  of  his  run.  Politics  are 
unpromising,  but  better  than  last  session.  The  juste  milieu 
will  vindicate  itself.  With  much  love  to  G.  S.  H. 

"  Yours  faithfully, 

"  R.  CHOATE." 

On  the  19th  of  February  he  writes  again  :  — 

"  MY  DEAR  SUMNER,  —  I  hoped  to  be  able  before  now  to 
tell  you  what  can  be  done  for  that  elegant  and  tuneful  Pro- 
fessor. No  certain  thing  do  I  get  yet,  but  I  trust  soon  to 
have.  It  is  the  age  of  patronage  of  genius  you  see.  Rec/nat 
Apollo,  as  one  may  say.  .  .  .  That  was  a  most  rich  speech  of 
Hillard's,  as  is  all  his  speaking,  whether  to  listening  crowds, 
or  to  appreciating  circles  of  you  and  me.2  .  .  .  How  cheerful, 
genial,  and  fragrant,  as  it  were,  are  our  politics !  What  ser- 
ried files  of  armed  men,  shoulder  to  shoulder,  keeping  time 

1  The  subject  of  searching  vessels  on  the  high  seas  was  then  widely 
discussed,  and  this  refers  to  some  articles  in  the  "  Boston  Daily  Ad- 
vertiser," on  the  right  and  necessity,  in  certain  cases,  of  verifying  a 
suspected  flag. 

2  A  speech  of  Mr.  Hillard's  at  a  dinner  given  to  Mr.  Dickens. 


94  MEMOIR   OF   RUFUS  CHOATE.         [CHAP.  III. 

to  the  music  of  duty  and  glory,  animated  by  a  single  soul, 
are  the  Whigs !  But  this  delicious  winter  bears  us  swiftly 
through  it  all,  and  the  sun  of  to-day  lights  up  the  Potomac 
and  burns  with  the  flush  and  glory  of  June.  Dexter  says 
this  city  reminds  one  of  Rome.  I  suppose  he  meant  in  its 
spaces,  solitudes,  quiet,  vices,  etc.,  —  though  the  surrounding 
country  is  undoubtedly  beautiful.  Love  to  Hillard.  Lieber 
writes  in  Latin.  I  mean  to  answer  him  in  any  tongue  what- 
ever he  chooses  to  speak,  and  for  that  purpose  must  break 
off  and  go  at  him.  Truly  yours, 

"  R.  CHOATE." 

To  CHARLES  SCMNER,  ESQ. 

"  WASHINGTON,  June  5. 1842. 

"  MY  DEAK  SIR,  —  I  mourn  that  I  cannot  get  you  yet  a 
copy  of  the  Opinions,  otherwise  called  Old  Fields.1  I  am  in 
collusion  with  Tims,  however ;  if  man  can  do  it,  Tims  is  he. 
I  have  never  got  one  for  myself,  or  I  would  send  that.  I 
send  you  my  speech,  so  that  if  you  do  not  get  Ann  Page,  you 
however  have  the  great  lubberly  boy.  .  .  .  Lord  Ashburton 
is  a  most  interesting  man,  quick,  cheerful,  graceful-minded, 
keen,  and  prudent.  The  three  young  men  [his  suite]  are 
also  clever ;  young  rather ;  one  a  whig,  all  lovers  of  Lord 
Morpeth.  Maine  comes  with  such  exacting  purposes,  that 
between  us,  I  doubt.  .  .  .  Yours  truly, 

"  K.  CHOATE." 

Later  in  the  summer  he  writes  again  in  the  vein  of 
humor  and  playfulness  which  so  generally  characterized 
his  familiar  intercourse  :  — 

"  WASHINGTON,  10  P.M. 

"  DEAR  SUM\ER  AND  HILLARD,  —  I  have  addressed 
myself  with  tears  of  entreaty  to  the  Secretary,  and  if  no 
hidden  snag,  or  planter,  lies  under  the  muddy  flood,  we  shall 
scull  the  Dr.  into  port.  There,  as  Dr.  Watts  says,  he  may 

'  Sit  and  sing  himself  away,' 
or  exclaim,  — 

'  Spes  et  fortuna,  valete  —  inveni  nunc  portum, 
Lusistis  me  satis  —  Indite  nunc  alios  '  — 

1  Opinions  of  the  Attorney-General,  with  reference  to  which  Mr. 
Sumner  had  quoted  the  verses  of  Chaucer,  — 

"  Out  of  the  old  fields  cometh  all  this  new  corn,"  &c. 


1841-1843.]  NORTH  EASTERN  BOUNDARY  QUESTION-      95 

which  is  from  the  Greek,  you  know,  in  Dalzell's  Graac.  Ma- 
jora,  vol.  2d,  —  and  closes  some  editions  of  Gil  Bias ! 

"The  voting  on  the  Ashburton  Treaty  at  9  at  night  — 
seats  full,  —  lights  lighted,  —  hall  as  still  as  death  —  was  not 
without  grandness.     But   why   speak   of   this   to  the   poco- 
curantes of  that  denationalized  Boston  and  Massachusetts  ? 
"  Yours  truly,  R.  CHOATE." 

i 

Of  all  the  questions  of  foreign  policy  none  were 
more  pressing,  on  the  accession  of  the  Whigs  to  the 
government,  than  the  North-Eastern  boundary.  Col- 
lisions had  already  taken  place  on  the  border.  British 
regiments  had  been  sent  into  Canada  ;  volunteers 
were  enrolled  in  Maine.  The  question  seemed  hope- 
lessly complicated,  and  both  parties  were  apparently 
immovable  in  their  opinions.  On  assuming  the  De- 
partment of  State,  Mr.  Webster  at  once  informed  the 
British  government  of  our  willingness  to  renew  nego- 
tiations, and  shortly  after  the  accession  of  Sir  Robert 
Peel  and  Lord  Aberdeen  to  power,  Lord  Ashburton 
was  sent  as  a  special  envoy  to  the  United  States, 
with  the  hope  of  settling  the  dangerous  dispute.  On 
both  sides  were  high  purposes,  a  willing  mind,  and  a 
determination,  if  possible,  to  settle  the  difficulty  to 
the  advantage  of  both  parties.  This  purpose  was 
finally  accomplished  ;  the  treaty  was  made  and  signed 
by  the  respective  Plenipotentiaries  on  the  9th  August, 
1842.  It  was  submitted  to  the  Senate  on  the  llth  of 
August,  and  finally  ratified  on  the  20th  of  the  same 
month  by  a  vote  of  39  to  9.  It  determined  the 
North-Eastern  boundary ;  settled  the  mode  of  pro- 
ceeding for  the  suppression  of  the  African  Slave- 
Trade  ;  and  agreed  to  the  extradition  of  criminals 
fugitive  from  justice,  in  certain  well-defined  cases. 
At  the  same  time  the  irritating  questions  connected 


96  MEMOIR   OF   RUFUS    CHOATE.         [CHAP.  III. 

with  the  destruction  of  The  Caroline,  the  mutiny  and 
final  liberation  of  the  slaves  on  board  The  Creole, 
and  the  right  of  impressment,  were  put  at  rest  by 
correspondence  and  mutual  understanding.  Harmony 
was  thus  restored  between  two  great  nations  ;  the  pos- 
sibility of  border  forces, along  the  Canadian  boundary 
greatly  diminished ;  and  the  rights  of  the  flag  upon 
the  high-seas  rendered  more  exact  and  definite.  The 
question  of  the  boundary  of  Oregon  was  left  unde- 
termined, because  the  arrangement  of  that  question 
seemed  not  to  be  practicable.  That  a  treaty  of  so 
much  consequence,  affecting  questions  that  had  so 
long  interested  and  irritated  the  nations,  should  meet 
the  approbation  of  every  senator,  was  not  to  be  ex- 
pected. It  was  assailed  at  great  length,  and  with  what 
might  be  thought  intemperate  violence,  by  Mr.  Benton, 
when  discussed  in  secret  session,  and  subsequently 
during  the  next  session  of  Congress,  when  the  bill 
for  the  occupation  of  Oregon  was  under  debate.  He 
found  fault  with  what  it  did  and  with  what  it  omitted 
to  do,  with  the  spirit  and  patriotism  of  its  American 
negotiator,  Mr.  Webster,  and  with  his  resoluteness 
and  intelligence.  The  treaty  was  defended  with  a 
spirit  and  ability  equal  to  the  occasion.  Mr.  Choate 
spoke  three  times.  One  only  of  these  speeches  has 
been  preserved,  that  delivered  on  the  3d  February, 
1843,  during  the  debate  on  the  bill  for  the  occupation 
and  settlement  of  the  Oregon  Territory. 

Congress  adjourned  on  the  3d  of  March,  and  Mr. 
Choate  returned  to  the  labors  of  his  profession  in 
Boston. 

Since  Mr.  Choate's  death  there  have  been  found 
among  his  papers  fragments  of  journals  and  transla- 


1841-1843.]     JOURNAL  OF  READINGS  AND  ACTIONS.         97 

tions  of  portions  of  the  ancient  classics.  Although 
these  were  prepared  solely  for  his  own  benefit,  and 
the  translations  seem  never  to  have  been  revised,  it 
has  been  thought  that  no  means  accessible  to  us  can  so 
fully  exhibit  some  of  his  mental  traits,  the  methods  by 
which  he  wrought,  and  the  results  which  he  gained. 
Parts  of  the  journals  are  accordingly  inserted  in  their 
chronological  order,  and  extracts  from  the  transla- 
tions, if  this  volume  is  not  too  crowded,  will  be  found 
in  the  appendix. 

"  LEAVES  OF  AN  IMPERFECT  JOURNAL  OF  READINGS  AND  ACTIONS. 

"  May,  1 843.  —  I  can  see  very  clearly,  that  an  hour  a  day 
might  with  manifold  and  rich  usefulness  be  employed  upon  a 
journal.  Such  a  journal,  written  with  attention  to  language 
and  style,  would  be  a  very  tolerable  substitute  for  the  most 
stimulating  and  most  improving  of  the  disciplinary  and  edu- 
cational exercises,  careful  composition.  It  should  not  merely 
enumerate  the  books  looked  into,  and  the  professional  and 
other  labors  performed ;  but  it  should  embrace  a  digest,  or 
at  least  an  index  of  subjects  of  what  I  read ;  some  thoughts 
suggested  by  my  reading ;  something  to  evince  that  an  acqui- 
sition has  been  made,  a  hint  communicated ;  a  step  taken  in 
the  culture  of  the  immortal,  intellectual,  and  moral  nature ; 
a  translation  perhaps,  or  other  effort  of  laborious  writing ;  a 
faithful  and  severe  judgment  on  the  intellectual  and  the  moral 
quality  of  all  I  shall  have  done  ;.the  failure,  the  success,  and 
the  lessons  of  both.  Thus  conducted,  it  would  surely  be 
greatly  useful.  Can  I  keep  such  an  one?  Prorsus  ignoro 
—  prorsus  dubito.  Spero  tamen.  The  difficulty  has  been 
heretofore  that  I  took  too  little  time  for  it.  I  regarded  it 
less  as  an  agent,  and  a  labor  of  useful  influence,  in  and  by 
itself,  —  in  and  by  what  it  exacted,  of  introspection,  memory, 
revisal  of  knowledge  and  of  trains  of  thought ;  less  by  the 
incumbent  work  of  taste,  expression,  accuracy,  which  it  itself 
imposed  and  constituted,  than  as  a  mere  bald  and  shrewd 
enumeration  of  labors,  processes,  and  other  useful  or  influen- 
tial things  somewhere  else,  and  before  undergone.  Better 
write  on  it  but  once  a  week,  than  so  misconceive  and  impair 
its  uses. 


98  MEMOIR   OF   KUFUS    CHOATE.        [CHAP.  HI. 

"  I  do  not  know  any  other  method  of  beginning  to  realize 
what  I  somewhat  vaguely,  yet  sanguinely,  hope  from  my 
improved  journal,  than  by  proceeding  to  work  on  it  at  once, 
and  regularly  for  every  hour,  for  every  half-hour  of  reading 
which  I  can  snatch  from  business  and  the  law.  I  have  a 
little  course  for  instance  of  authors  whom  I  read  for  English 
words  and  thoughts,  and  to  keep  up  my  Greek,  Latin,  and 
French.  Let  me  after  finishing  my  day's  little  work  of  each, 
record  here  what  I  have  read,  with  some  observation  or  some 
version.  I  am  sure  the  time  I  now  give  to  one  would  be 
better  spent,  if  equally  divided  between  him  and  this  journal. 
I  am  not  to  forget,  that  I  am,  and  must  be,  if  I  would  live,  a 
student  of  professional  forensic  rhetoric.  I  grow  old.  My 
fate  requires,  appoints,  that  I  do  so  didaaxoftsro.;,  —  arte 
rhetorical  A  wide  and  anxious  survey  of  that  art  and  that 
science  teaches  me  that  careful  constant  writing  is  the  parent 
of  ripe  speech.  It  has  no  other.  But  that  writing  must  be 
always  rhetorical  writing,  that  is,  such  as  might  in  some  parts 
of  some  speech  be  uttered  to  a  listening  audience.  It  is  to 
be  composed  as  in  and  for  the  presence  of  an  audience.  So 
it  is.  to  be  intelligible,  perspicuous,  pointed,  terse,  with  image, 
epithet,  turn,  advancing  and  impulsive,  full  of  generalizations, 
maxims,  illustrating  the  sayings  of  the  wise.  I  have  written 
enough  to  satisfy  me  I  cannot  keep  this  journal ;  yet  seri- 
ousty  do  I  mean  to  try.  Those  I  love  best  may  read,  smile, 
or  weep  when  I  am  dead,  at  such  a  record  of  lofty  design 
and  meagre  achievement !  yet  they  will  recognize  a  spirit 
that  '  endeavored  well.' 

"  13th  May.  —  Read  in  Bloom.  G.  T.  Matth.  3  c.  11-17, 
and  notes,  carefully  verifying  the  references.  I  believe  I 
concur  with  him  in  every  observation.  <?M.  tamen  1.  If  /*£  is 
not  the  object  of  ucpsg  as  avrov  is  of  acpir/air  and  of  dir/.(a/.v£v  ? 
2.  Why  does  not  svttvg  qualify  drt^?  Yet  I  think  the  sense 
is,  that  the  whole  series  of  incidents  —  the  ascent  from  the 
water,  and  the  opening  of  the  heavens,  and  the  vision,  and 
the  voice  —  followed  in  the  order  I  have  enumerated/asf  and 
close  upon  the  consummation  of  the  Baptism. 

"  3.  That  a  miracle  is  described,  the  apparent  opening  of 
the  heavens,  so  as  to  bring  to  the  eye  of  some  one,  as  from 
above,  beyond,  within,  the  image,  form,  symbol,  the  Holy 
Spirit,  descending,  with  the  hovering  motion  of  the  dove ; 
and  that  an  articulate  proclamation  of  the  Sonship,  and  the 

1  Tripaa-Ku  5'  olel  TroAAa  SiSao-Kdptvos,  —  a  fragment  from  Solon. 


1841-1843.]     JOURNAL  OF  READINGS  AND  ACTIONS.        99 

love  and  the  complacency  indulged  towards  that  son,  by  the 
Invisible  speaking  from  on  high,  is  asserted  by  the  evangelist, 
no  one  can  doubt. 

"  Does  JEu.  5,  216-17,  describe  a  descent  or  a  hovering  at 
all,  or  only  contrast  a  progressive  horizontal  motion,  caused 
and  attended  by  the  moving  of  the  wings,  and  a  similar 
motion  with  the  wings  at  rest  ?  Semble  the  latter  only. 

"  I  read  the  French  of  the  same  verses,  and  the  German, 
but  the  latter  without  profit. 

"  I  reviewed  —  for  I  will  not  confess  I  had  never  read  — 
Quintilian's  first  chap,  of  book  10,  de  copia  verborum,  Rollin's 
Latin  edition.  I  think  I  do  not  over-estimate  the  transcendent 
value  and  power,  as  an  instrument  of  persuasive  speech,  of 
what  may  be  comprehensively  described  as  the  best  language 

—  that  which  is  the  very  best  suited  to  the  exact  demand 
of  the  discourse  just  where  it  is  employed.     Every  word  in 
the  language,  by  turns,  and  in  the  circle  of  revolving  oratorical 
exigencies  and  tasks,  becomes  precisely  the  right  one  ivord, 
and  must  be  used,  with  one  exception,  that  of  immodest  ones. 
This  is  Quintilian's  remark,  [§  9]  exaggerated  —  modo  eorum 
qui  art.  prcec.  tradunt  —  yet  asserting  a  general  truth  of  great 
value,  the  immense  importance  of  a  strong  hold,  and  a  capacity 
of  easy  employment  of  all  the  parts  of  the  language  —  the 
homely,  the  colloquial,  the  trite,  as  well  as  the  lofty,  the 
refined,  the  ornamented,  and  the  artistical  propriety  of  a  reso- 
lute interchange  or  transition  from  one  to  another. 

"  How  such  a  language  —  such  an  English  —  is  to  be 
attained,  is  plain.  It  is  by  reading  and  by  hearing,  —  reading 
the  best  books,  hearing  the  most  accomplished  speakers. 
Some  useful  hints  how  to  read  and  how  to  hear,  I  gather 
from  this  excellent  teacher,  and  verify  by  my  own  experience, 
and  accommodate  to  my  own  case. 

"  I  have  been  long  in  the  practice  of  reading  daily  some 
first-class  English  writer,  chiefly  for  the  copia  verborum,  to 
avoid  sinking  into  cheap  and  bald  fluency,  to  give  elevation, 
energy,  sonorousness,  and  refinement,  to  my  vocabulary. 
Yet  with  this  object  I  would  unite  other  and  higher  objects, 

—  the  acquisition  of  things,  —  taste,  criticism,  facts  of  biog- 
raphy, images,   sentiments.      Johnson's  Poets  happens  just 
now  to  be  my  book,  and  I  have  just  read  his  life  and  judg- 
ment of  Waller. 

"  \lth  May.  — The  review  of  this  arduous  and  responsible 
professional  labor  suggests  a  reflection  or  two.  I  am  not 


100  MEMOIR    OF   RUFUS   CHOATE.        [CHAP.  HI. 

conscious  of  having  pressed  any  consideration  farther  than 
I  ought  to  have  done,  although  the  entire  effort  may  have 
seemed  an  intense  and  overwrought  one.  Guilty,  she  cer- 
tainly appears,  upon  the  proof  to  have  been ;  and  I  can  dis- 
cern no  trace  of  subornation  or  manufacture  of  evidence. 
God  forgive  the  suborner  and  the  perjured,  if  it  be  so !  I 
could  and  should  have  prepared  my  argument  beforehand  and 
with  more  allusion,  illustration,  and  finish.  Topics,  principles 
of  evidence,  standards  of  probability,  quotations,  might  have 
been  much  more  copiously  accumulated  and  distributed. 
There  should  have  been  less  said,  —  a  better  peroration,  more 
dignity,  and  a  general  better  phraseology. 

"  1  remark  a  disinclination  to  cross-examine,  which  I  must 
at  once  check.  More  discussion  of  the  importance  of  guard- 
ing the  purity  of  married  life  —  the  sufferings  of  the  husband 
—  a  passage  or  two  from  Erskine  —  should  have  been  set 
off  against  the  passionate  clamor  for  pity  to  the  respondent. 
Whole  days  of  opportunity  of  preparation  stupidly  lost. 

"  I  have  read  nothing  since  Sunday  until  to-day ;  and 
to-day  only  a  page  of  Greenleaf  on  Evidence,  and  a  half- 
dozen  lines  of  Greek,  Latin,  and  French.  But  I  prepared 
the  case  of  the  Ipswich  Man.  Co.  My  Greek  was  the  fifth 
book  of  the  Odyssey  —  1 63-1 70  —  the  extorted,  unantici- 
pated, and  mysterious  communication  —  unanticipated  by,  and 
mysterious  to,  him  —  of  Calypso  to  Ulysses  on  the  seashore, 
in  which  she  bids  him  dry  his  tears,  and  cease  to  consume  his 
life  ;  for  at  length  she  will  consent  to  assist  his  departure  from 
the  endearments  and  the  charms  whose  spell  on  his  passions 
was  for  ever  broken.  There  is  no  peevishness  or  pettishness 
in  her  words  or  manner ;  but  pity,  and  the  bestowment  gen- 
erously of  what  she  knows  and  feels  he  will  receive  as  the  one 
most  comprehensive  and  precious  object  of  desire. 

"  Saturday,  3d  June. — The  week,  which  closes  to-day, 
has  not  been  one  of  great  labor  or  of  much  improvement.  I 
discussed  the  case  of  Allen  and  the  Corporation  of  Essex, 
under  the  pressure  of  ill  health  ;  and  I  have  read  and  digested 
a  half-dozen  pages  of  Greenleaf  on  Evidence,  and  as  many 
of  Story  on  the  Dissolution  of  Partnership.  Other  studies  of 
easier  pursuit,  nor  wholly  useless,  —  if  studies  I  may  denomi- 
nate them,  —  I  have  remembered  in  those  spaces  of  time  which 
one  can  always  command,  though  few  employ.  The  preg- 
nant pages  in  which  Tacitus  reports  the  conflicting  judgments 
expressed  by  the  Romans  concerning  Augustus,  upon  the  day 


1841-1843.]    JOURNAL  OF  READINGS  AND  ACTIONS.     101 

of  his  funeral ;  and  paints  the  scene  in  the  Senate,  when  that 
body  solicited  Tiberius  to  assume  the  imperial  name  and 
power ;  the  timid  or  politic  urgency  of  the  solicitation ;  the 
solicitation  of  prayers  ;  the  dignified,  distrusted,  unintelligible 
terms  of  the  dissembler's  reply ;  his  proposition  to  consent  to 
undertake  a  part  of  the  imperial  function,  and  the  incautious 
or  the  subtle  inquiry  with  which  Callus  for  a  moment  spoiled 
the  acting  of  the  player  in  the  iron  mask  — '  what  part  he 
would  take '  —  I  have  read  for  Latin.  They  include  pp. 
14—17,  in  the  edition  of  Ernesti  and  Oberlin.  Observe, 
Tacitus  in  his  own  person  paints  no  character  of  Augustus. 
More  dramatically  he  supposes  a  multitude  to  witness  the 
funeral,  and  then  to  speak  among  themselves  of  his  character 
and  actions.  By  the  intelligent,  he  says,  a  divided  opinion 
of  his  life  was  expressed.  It  was  applauded  by  some  ;  it  was 
arraigned  by  others.  The  former  found  in  filial  piety,  and 
in  those  necessities  of  state  which  silenced  and  displaced  and 
superseded  the  laws,  the  only  motives  that  compelled  him  to 
take  up  the  arms  of  civil  war ;  arms  which  can  neither  be 
acquired  nor  wielded  by  the  exercise  of  the  purer  and  nobler 
arts  of  policy.  While  he  had  his  father's  murderers  to  pun- 
ish, he  conceded  a  large  measure  of  supreme  power  to  Antony 
and  to  Lepidus ;  but  after  the  latter  had  grown  an  old  man 
by  sloth,  and  the  former  had  become  debauched  and  ruined  by 
self-indulgence,  there  remained  no  remedy  for  his  distracted 
country  but  the  government  of  one  man.  Yet  that  govern- 
ment was  wielded,  not  under  the  name  of  king  or  of  dictator, 
but  under  that  of  prince.  It  had  been  illustrated,  too,  by  policy 
and  fortune.  The  empire  had  been  fenced  and  guarded  on  all 
sides  by  great  rivers  and  the  sea.  Legions,  fleets,  provinces, 
however  widely  separated  from  each  other,  were  connected  by 
a  system  and  order  of  intercommunication  and  correspondence. 
The  rights  of  citizens  had  been  guarded  by  the  law ;  moder- 
ation and  indulgence  had  been  observed  towards  the  allies. 
Rome  itself  had  been  decorated  with  taste  and  splendor. 
Here  and  there  only,  military  force  had  been  interposed,  to 
the  end  that  everywhere  else  there  might  be  rest. 

"  I  cannot  to-day  pursue  the  version  farther.  In  Greek 
I  have  reached  the  two  hundred  and  fifty-first  line  of  the  fifth 
Odyssey.  Without  preaching  and  talk  by  the  poet,  as  in 
Fenelon's  celebrated  work,  how  the  actions  and  speech  of 
Ulysses  show  forth  his  tried,  sagacious  character.  His  sus- 
picion of  Calypso,  and  his  exaction  of  an  oath  that  she  means 


102  MEMOIR   OF   RUFUS   CHOATE.        [CHAP.  III. 

fair  in  thus  suddenly  permitting  him  to  go  ;  his  address  in 
allowing  the  superiority  of  her  charms  to  Penelope's,  and 
putting  forward  rather  the  general  passion  for  getting  home, 
as  his  motive  of  action ;  his  avowal  that  he  is  prepared  to 
endure  still  more  of  the  anger  of  God,  having  endured  so 
much,  mark  the  wary,  much-suffering,  and  wise  man,  sailor, 
and  soldier.  I  read  in  French  a  dissertation  in  the  Memoirs 
of  the  Academic  of  Inscriptions,  vol.  2,  on  the  Chronology  of 
the  Odyssey ;  began  one  on  Cicero's  Discovery  of  the  Tomb 
of  Archimedes.  For  English  I  have  read  Johnson's  Lives 
to  the  beginning  of  Dryden ;  Alison,  a  little ;  Antony  and 
Cleopatra,  a  little ;  Quintilian's  Chapters  on  Writing,  and  on 
Extempore  Speech,  I  have  read  and  re-read ;  but  mean  to- 
morrow to  abridge  and  judge.  I  need  a  Facciolatus  and  a 
Stephens.  Preserve  me  from  such  temptation.  The  first 
I  must  get ;  and  so  I  close  this  Saturday. 

"  I  propose  now  to  present  in  a  condensed  view  all  the  good 
sense  in  Quintilian's  Chapters  on  Writing,  and  on  Extempore 
Speech.  [Ch.  I.]  —  He  is  treating  of  the  means  of  acquiring 
copiousness  of  speech,  and  has  disposed  of  the  first  of  these 
means  —  the  reading  of  good  books  —  of  authors  or  of  orators. 
[Ch.  III.,  §  l.J  'This  is  a  help  from  without.  But  of  all 
the  parts  of  self-education,  the  most  laborious,  most  useful,  is 
writing.  This,  says  Cicero,  not  extravagantly,  best  produces, 
and  is  emphatically  the  master  of  speech.  [§  2.]  —  Write 
then  with  as  much  pains  as  possible,  and  write  as  much  as 
possible.  In  mental  culture,  as  in  the  culture  of  the  earth, 
the  seed  sown  in  the  deepest  furrow  finds  a  more  fruitful  soil, 
is  more  securely  cherished,  and  springs  up  in  his  time  to  more 
exuberant  and  healthful  harvests.  Without  this  discipline, 
the  power  and  practice  of  extemporaneous  speech  will  yield 
only  an  empty  loquacity  —  only  words  born  on  the  lips. 
[§  3.]  —  In  this  discipline,  deep  down  there  are  the  roots, 
there  the  foundations;  thence  must  the  harvest  shoot,  thence 
the  structure  ascend ;  there  is  garnered  up,  as  in  a  more 
sacred  treasury,  wealth  for  the  supply  of  even  unanticipated 
exactions.  Thus,  first  of  all,  must  we  accumulate  resources 
sufficient  for  the  contests  to  which  we  are  summoned,  and 
inexhaustible  by  them.  [§  4.  J  —  Nature  herself  will  have  no 
great  things  hastily  formed ;  in  the  direct  path  to  all  beautiful 
and  conspicuous  achievement  she  heaps  up  difficulty ;  to  the 
largest  animal  she  appoints  the  longest  sleep  in  the  parent 
womb. 


1841-1843.]     JOURNAL  OF  READINGS  AND  ACTIONS.      103 

«'  '  Two  inquiries  there  are  then  :  first  how,  next  what  we 
shall  write.  [§  5.]  I  begin  with  the  first,  and  urge  that  you 
compose  with  care,  even  if  you  compose  ever  so  slowly.  Seek 
for  the  best ;  do  not  eagerly  and  gladly  lay  hold  on  that  which 
first  offers  itself;  apply  judgment  to  the  crowd  of  thoughts 
and  words  with  which  your  faculties  of  invention  supply  you  ; 
retain  and  set  in  their  places  those  only  which  thus  you  delib- 
erately approve.  For  of  words  and  of  things  a  choice  is  to 
be  made,  and  to  that  end  the  weight  of  every  one  to  be 
exactly  ascertained. 

"  Tuesday,  6th  June.  —  '  The  taste  of  selection  accom- 
plished, that  of  collocation  follows.  Do  not  leave  every 
word  to  occupy  as  a  matter  of  course  the  exact  spot  where 
the  order  of  time  in  which  it  occurs  to  you  would  place  it ; 
do  not  let  the  succession  of  their  birth  necessarily  determine 
their  relative  position.  Seek  rather  by  variety  of  experi- 
ment and  arrangement  to  attain  the  utmost  power,  and  the 
utmost  harmony  of  style.  [§  6.]  The  more  successfully  to 
accomplish  this,  practise  the  repeated  reading  over  of  what 
you  have  last  written  before  you  write  another  sentence. 
By  this  means  a  more  perfect  coherence  of  what  follows 
with  what  precedes ;  a  more  coherent  and  connected  succes- 
sion of  thought  and  of  periods  will  be  expected ;  and  by  this 
means,  too,  the  glow  of  mental  conception,  which  the  labor 
of  writing  has  cooled,  will  be  kindled  anew ;  and  will,  as  it 
were,  acquire  fresh  impetus  by  taking  a  few  steps  backward ; 
as  in  the  contest  of  leaping  we  frequently  remark  the  com- 
petitors setting  out  to  run  at  an  increased  distance  from  the 
point  where  they  begin  to  leap,  and  thus  precipitating  them- 
selves by  the  impulse  of  the  race  towards  the  bound  at  which 
they  aim ;  as  in  darting  the  javelin  we  draw  back  the  arm ; 
and  in  shooting  with  the  bow  draw  back  its  string.' 

"  I  have  written  only  this  translation  of  Quintilian  since 
Saturday.  Professional  engagements  have  hindered  me.  But 
I  have  carefully  read  a  page  or  two  of  Johnson's  Dryden, 
and  a  scene  or  two  of  Antony  and  Cleopatra  every  morning 
—  marking  any  felicity  or  available  peculiarity  of  phrase  — 
have  launched  Ulysses  from  the  isle  of  Calypso,  and  brought 
him  in  sight  of  Phaeacia.  Kept  along  in  Tacitus,  and  am 
reading  a  pretty  paper  in  the  '  Memoirs '  on  the  old  men 
of  Homer.  I  read  Homer  more  easily  and  with  more  ap- 
preciation, though  with  no  helps  but  Cowper  and  Donnegan's 
Lexicon.  Fox  and  Canning's  Speeches  are  a  more  profes- 


104  MEMOIR  OF   RUFUS   CHOATE.        [CHAP.  III. 

sional  study,  not  useless,  not  negligently  pursued.  Alas, 
alas !  there  is  no  time  to  realize  the  dilating  and  burning 
idea  of  excellence  and  eloquence  inspired  by  the  great  gal- 
lery of  the  immortals  in  which  I  walk ! 

"  24th  June.  —  I  respire  more  freely  in  this  pure  air  of  a 
day  of  rest.  Let  me  record  a  most  happy  method  of  legal 
study,  by  which  I  believe  and  feel  that  I  am  reviving  my 
love  of  the  law ;  enlarging  my  knowledge  of  it ;  and  fitting 
myself,  according  to  the  precepts  of  the  masters,  for  its 
forensic  discussions.  I  can  find,  and  have  generally  been 
able  to  find,  an  hour  or  two  for  legal  reading  beyond  and 
beside  cases  already  under  investigation.  That  time  and 
that  reading  I  have  lost,  no  matter  how.  I  have  adopted 
the  plan  of  taking  a  volume,  the  last  volume  of  Massachu- 
setts Reports,  and  of  making  a  full  brief  of  an  argument  on 
every  question  in  every  case,  examining  all  the  authorities, 
finding  others,  and  carefully  composing  an  argument  as  well 
reasoned,  as  well  expressed,  as  if  I  were  going  to-morrow 
to  submit  it  to  a  bench  of  the  first  of  jurists.1  At  the  com- 
pletion of  each  argument,  I  arrange  the  propositions  inves- 
tigated in  my  legal  commonplace  book,  and  index  them. 
Already  I  remark  renewed  interest  in  legal  investigations ; 
renewed  power  of  recalling,  arranging,  and  adding  to  old 
acquisitions  ;  increased  activity  and  attention  of  mind  ;  more 
thought ;  more  effort ;  a  deeper  image  on  the  memory ; 
growing  facility  of  expression.  I  confess  delight,  too,  in 
adapting  thus  the  lessons  of  the  great  teachers  of  rhetoric 
to  the  study  of  the  law  and  of  legal  eloquence. 

"  I  resume  Quintilian,  p.  399.  [§  7.J  '  Yet  I  deny  not  if 
the  fair  wind  freshly  blows,  that  the  sails  may  all  be  spread 
to  catch  it.  But  have  a  care  lest  this  surrender  of  yourself 
to  the  spontaneous  and  headlong  course  of  your  conceptions 
do  not  lead  you  astray.  All  our  first  thoughts,  in  the  mo- 
ment of  their  birth,  please  us,  or  we  should  never  write. 
[§  8.]  But  we  must  come  to  our  critical  senses  again ;  and 
coolly  revise  and  reconstruct  the  productions  of  this  suspi- 
cious and  deceitful  facility.  Thus  we  have  heard  that  Sal- 
lust  wrote ;  and  indeed  his  work  itself  reveals  the  labor. 
Varius  tells  us  that  Virgil,  too,  composed  but  very  few 
verses  in  a  day. 

"  [§  9.]  '  The  condition  of  the  speaker  is  a  different  one 
from  that  of  the  author.  It  is  therefore  that  I  prescribe,  for 

1  This  plan  he  continued  down  to  the  end  of  his  life. 


1841-1843.]    JOURNAL  OF  READINGS  AND  ACTIONS.     105 

the  first,  preparatory  written  exercises  of  the  future  speaker, 
that  he  dwell  so  long  and  so  solicitously  upon  his  task.  Con- 
sider that  the  first  great  attainment  to  be  achieved  is  excel- 
lence of  writing.  Use  will  confer  celerity.  By  slow  degrees 
matter  will  more  easily  present  itself ;  words  will  answer  to 
it ;  style  will  follow ;  all  things  as  in  a  well-ordered  house- 
hold, will  know,  will  perform  their  functions.  [§  10."]  It 
is  not  by  writing  rapidly  that  you  come  to  write  well,  but 
by  writing  well  you  come  to  write  rapidly.'  Thus  far 
Quintilian. 

"  I  read,  besides  my  lessons,  the  Temptation  in  Matthew, 
Mark,  and  Luke,  in  the  Greek ;  and  then  that  grand  and 
grave  poem  which  Milton  has  built  upon  those  few  and 
awful  verses,  Paradise  Regained.  I  recognize  and  pro- 
foundly venerate  the  vast  poetical  luminary  '  in  this  more 
pleasing  light,  shadowy.'  Epic  sublimity  the  subject  ex- 
cludes ;  the  anxious  and  changeful  interests  of  the  drama 
are  not  there ;  it  suggests  an  occasional  recollection  of  the 
Book  of  Job,  but  how  far  short  of  its  pathos,  its  agencies,  its 
voices  of  human  sorrow  and  doubt  and  curiosity  :  and  its 
occasional  unapproachable  grandeur ;  yet  it  is  of  the  most 
sustained  elegance  of  expression  ;  it  is  strewn  and  burning 
with  the  pearl  and  gold  of  the  richest  and  loftiest  and  best- 
instructed  of  human  imaginations;  it  is  a  mine  —  a  maga- 
zine, '  horrent,'  blazing  with  all  weapons  of  the  most  exquisite 
rhetoric ;  with  all  the  celestial  panoply  of  truth,  reason,  wis- 
dom, duty." 


106  MEMOIR   OF   RUFUS   CHOATE.        [CHAP.  IV. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

1843-1844. 

Address  before  the  New  England  Society  of  New  York  —  Letter 
from  Mr.  Van  Cott — Letter  to  Professor  Bush — Letters  to 
Charles  Sumner  —  Letter  to  his  Daughters  —  Speech  on  Oregon 
in  reply  to  Mr.  Buchanan  —  Recollections  of  Alexander  H.  Ste- 
phens —  First  Speech  on  the  Tariff  —  Second  Speech  in  reply  to 
Mr.  M'Duffie  —  Journal. 

THE  twenty-eighth  Congress  met  on  the  4th  of  De- 
cember, 1843,  and  Mr.  Choate  removed  to  Washington 
for  the  winter.  In  the  latter  part  of  the  month  he 
visited  New  York  for  the  purpose  of  delivering  the 
annual  oration  before  the  New  England  Society  of 
that  city.  The  theme  suggested  by  the  occasion 
was  one  which  seemed  always  to  have  a  fresh  inter- 
est for  him.  He  loved  to  dwell  upon  it.  In  lectures 
and  addresses  he  had  many  times  spoken  on  the 
Puritan  character  and  history,  and  never  without 
the  deepest  sympathy  and  heart-stirring  emotion. 
On  this  occasion  he  presented  the  Pilgrims,  their 
Age  and  their  Acts,  as  constituting  a  real  and  true 
heroic  period  in  the  history  of  this  republic.  "  We 
have,"  he  said,  "  a  specific  duty  to  perform.  We 
would  speak  of  certain  valiant,  good,  and  peculiar 
men,  our  fathers.  We  would  wipe  the  dust  from  a 

»  x 

few  old,  plain,  noble  urnfe.  We  would  shun  husky 
disquisitions,  irrelevant  novelties,  and  small  display ; 


1843-1844.]  ADDRESS   IN  NEW    YORK.  107 

would  recall  rather  and  merely  the  forms  and  linea- 
ments of  the  heroic  dead,  —  forms  and  features  which 
the  grave  has  not  changed,  —  over  which  the  grave 
has  no  power  —  robed  with  the  vestments  and  radiant 
with  the  hues  of  an  assured  immortality."  During 
his  discussion  of  the  general  subject  he  spoke  of  the 
influences  affecting  the  minds  of  the  disciples  of  the 
Reformation  in  England,  during  the  residence  of 
many  of  them  in  Geneva.  Touching  lightly  upon 
the  impression  of  the  material  grandeur  and  beauty 
of  Switzerland,  he  turned  to  the  moral  agents,  the 
politics,  and  the  ecclesiastical  influences  to  which 
the  exiles  were  exposed.  "  In  the  giant  hand  of 
guardian  mountains,  on  the  banks  of  a  lake  lovelier 
than  a  dream  of  the  Faery  land ;  in  a  valley  which 
might  seem  hollowed  out  to  enclose  the  last  home 
of  liberty,  there  smiled  an  independent,  peaceful, 
law-abiding,  well-governed,  and  prosperous  Common- 
wealth. There  was  a  State  without  king  or  nobles ; 
there  was  a  church  without  a  bishop;  there  was  a 
people  governed  by  grave  magistrates  which  it  had 
elected,  and  equal  laws  which  it  had  framed."  These 
phrases,  "  a  State  without  a  king,''  "  a  church  with- 
out a  bishop,"  were  at  once  caught  up  and  spread 
through  the  land.  They  became  the  burden  of  pop- 
ular songs,  and  led  to  a  noteworthy  discussion  of  the 
principles  of  church  government  between  two  emi- 
nent divines,  —  an  Episcopalian  and  a  Presbyterian, 
—  of  New  York. 

The  entire  address  was  received  with  the  greatest 
delight  and  enthusiasm.  A  member  of  the  New 
York  bar,  somewhat  advanced  in  years,  and  cool  in 
his  temperament,  said  "  that  it  was  different  in  kind 


108  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS  CHOATE.         [CHAP.  IV. 

from  any  thing  they  ever  heard  in  New  York  before. 
It  came  upon  them  like  a  series  of  electric  shocks, 
and  they  could  not  keep  their  seats,  and  kept  clap- 
ping and  applauding  without  being  conscious  of  it."  l 

1  The  following  account,  from  the  pen  of  Mr.  Joshua  M.  Van 
Cott,  is  taken  from  the  series  of  papers  prepared  by  Judge  Neilson, 
for  the  "  Albany  Law  Journal :  "  — 

"  The  oration  was  delivered  in  the  old  Broadway  Tabernacle,  then 
the  largest  auditorium  in  the  city.  The  great  building  was  crowded 
to  hear  the  famous  speaker.  Mr.  Webster  and  other  distinguished 
men  were  on  the  platform.  Mr.  Choate  was  then  in  his  prime,  and 
his  presence  was  hardly  less  striking  than  that  of  the  great  expounder. 
Tall,  thin,  his  complexion  a  rich  olive,  his  eyes  large,  liquid,  glow- 
ing ;  the  face  Oriental,  rather  than  American,  and  generally  rather 
sad  than  eager  and  passionate.  His  voice  was  a  rich  baritone,  sono- 
rous, majestic,  finely  modulated  and  inimitable  in  the  expression  of 
pathos.  He  philosophically  developed  the  rise  of  Puritanism  and  the 
causes  of  the  Pilgrim  emigration,  and  came  down  to  the  Mayflower, 
to  Miles  and  Rose  Standish,  to  the  landing  at  Plymouth,  the  severity 
of  the  winter,  the  famine  and  the  sickness  and  the  many  deaths,  — 
fifty  out  of  a  hundred,  including  the  beautiful  Rose  Standish.  Paus- 
ing, with  a  sad,  far-off  look  in  his  eyes,  as  if  the  vision  had  suddenly 
risen  upon  his  memory,  and  with  a  voice  inexpressibly  sweet  and 
pathetic,  and  nearly  choked  with  emotion,  he  said,  '  In  a  late  visit 
to  Plymouth,  I  sought  the  spot  where  these  earlier  dead  were  buried. 
It  was  on  a  bank  somewhat  elevated,  near,  fronting  and  looking  upon 
the  waves  —  symbol  of  what  life  had  been  to  them  —  ascending  inland 
behind  and  above  the  rock  —  symbol  also  of  that  Rock  of  Ages  on  which 
the  dying  had  rested  in  that  final  hour.' 

"I  have  never  seen  an  audience  so  moved.  The  orator  had  skil- 
fully led  up  to  this  passage,  and  then,  with  a  voice  surcharged  with 
emotion,  symbolized  the  stormy  and  tumultuous  life,  the  sudden  and 
sad  end,  and  the  heroic  faith  with  which,  resting  upon  the  Rock  of 
Ages,  they  had  lain  down  on  the  shore  of  the  Eternal  Sea.  As 
Choate  approached  the  climax,  Webster's  emotion  became  uncon- 
trollable; the  great  eyes  were  filled  with  tears,  the  great  frame  shook; 
he  bowed  his  head  to  conceal  his  face  in  his  hat,  and  I  almost  seemed 
to  hear  his  sob.  The  audience  was  flooded  with  tears,  a  handkerchief 
at  every  face,  and  sighs  and  sobs  soughed  through  the  house  like 
wind  in  the  tree-tops.  The  genius  of  the  orator  had  transferred  us 
to  the  spot,  and  we  saw  the  rocky  shore,  and,  with  him  mourned  the 


1843-1844.]        LETTER   TO   PROF.    GEORGE   BUSH.         109 

On  returning  to  Washington  he  wrote  to  his  friend 
Professor  Bush,  who  had  recently  adopted  the  views 
of  Swedenborg.  Although  of  decided  theological 
opinions  himself,  Mr.  Choate  rarely  entered  upon  a 
polemical  discussion  of  religious  topjcs,  never  indeed 
but  with  those  intimate  friends  with  whom  he  sympa- 
thized most  closely.  About  himself  he  never  chose 
to  talk,  and  those  who  indiscreetly  tried  to  probe  his 
feelings  would  generally  find  themselves  turned  aside 
with  what  would  seem  the  most  consummate  art,  were 
it  not  done  so  naturally,  and  with  such  suavity  and 
gentleness.  Hence  in  declining  a  discussion,  and  in 
saying  a  kind  word  of  the  opinions  of  others,  he  some- 
times seemed,  to  those  who  did  not  know  him,  indif- 
ferent as  to  his  own. 

To  PROFESSOR  GEORGE  BUSH. 

"  WASHINGTON,  Jan.  7,  1844. 

"Mr  DEAR  MR.  BUSH,  —  I  grieve  that  I  did  not  see  you 
at  New  York,  were  it  but  to  have  united  in  a  momentary  ob- 
jurgation of  all  celebrations  on  wet  days ;  though  I  should 
have  been  still  more  delighted  to  sit  down  and  charm  out  of 
their  cells  of  sleep  about  a  million  of  memories.  But  it  did 
not  occur  to  me  that  you  could  possibly  be  present,1  and  I  had 

early  dead.  We  have  had  but  one  Rufus  Choate:  alas!  we  shall 
never  have  another.  We  have  had  powerful  dialecticians,  such  as 
Hamilton  and  Pinkney  and  Webster;  we  have  had  great  stump- 
speakers,  such  as  senator  Corwin  and  Sergeant  S.  Prentiss,  but  none 
who  could  sway  the  soul  like  the  great  lawyer,  scholar,  statesman, 
and  orator  of  New  England. 

'  So  on  the  tip  of  his  subduing  tongue 
All  kinds  of  arguments  and  questions  deep, 
All  replication  prompt,  and  reason  strong, 
For  liis  advantage  still  did  wake  and  sleep; 
To  make  the  weeper  laugh,  the  laugher  weep, 
He  had  the  dialect  and  different  skill, 
Catching  all  passions  in  his  craft  of  will.'  " 

[SHAKS.  LOVER'S  COMPLAIMT.] 
1  At  the  New  England  Festival. 


110  MEMOIR   OF   RUFUS    CHOATE.        [CHAP.  IV. 

not  an  instant  to  go  out  to  call  on  you.  I  have  known,  say 
half  a  dozen  very  able  men,  who  hold  Swedenborg  just  as  you 
do.  Theophilus  Parsons,  of  Boston,  is  one,  who  is  a  man  of 
genius.  For  my  part,  I  know  him  not,  and  have  a  timorous 
disinclination  to  being  shocked,  waked,  or  stunned  out  of  the 
'  trivial  fond '  prejudices  and  implicit  takings  up  of  a  whole 
life.  But  it  is  your  privilege  to  be  a  seeker  for  truth,  with 
pure  aims  and  a  most  appreciating  eye  and  spirit.  Sit  mea 
anima  cum  tud.  Yours  truly, 

"  R.  CHOATE." 

Besides  the  political  business  of  the  session,  Mr. 
Choate  was  much  interested  in  a  law  case  of  great 
importance,  that  of  Massachusetts  v.  Rhode  Island. 
Mr.  Charles  Sumner  acted  as  counsel  with  him  in  ob- 
taining and  preparing  the  local  proofs.  The  follow- 
ing letter  refers  to  that  case  :  — 

To  CHARLES  SUMNER,  ESQ. 

"Mr  DEAR  SUMNER,  —  I  thank  you  for  the  documents. 
The  cause  is  assigned  for  the  20th,  and  being,  as  Mr.  Justice 
Catron  expressly  declared,  a  case  of  '  Sovereign  States,'  it  has, 
before  this  tribunal  of  strict  constructionists,  a  terrified  and 
implicit  precedence.  Great  swelling  words  of  prescription 
ought  to  be  spoken.  For  the  rest,  I  see  no  great  fertility  or 
heights  in  it.  Most  hurriedly  yours, 

"R.  CHOATE. 

"Saturday,  5  P.  M." 

To  CHARLES  SDMNER,  ESQ. 

"  MY  DKAR  SUMNKR, —  I  have  wi-itten  by  this  mail  to  Mr. 
Palfrey,  Secretary  of  State,  to  send  me  instantly  certain  pa- 
pers for  Massachusetts  v.  Rhode  Island.  May  I  entreat  you 
to  go  as  soon  as  possible  to  the  State  House,  see  my  letter, 
and  aid  and  urge  its  objects.  You  will  know  the  what  and 
where,  and  a  mail  saved  is  all  one  as  it  were  a  kingdom  for  a 
horse. 

"  I  thank  you  for  your  views,  —  excellent  and  seasonable. 
I  will  speak  them  to  the  court  so  that  they  shall  never  know 
any  thing  else  again  as  long  as  they  live.  Please  be  most 
prompt.  Yours,  R.  CHOATE. 

"  15th  FEB.  —  The  case  is  for  the  20th  ! !  " 


1843-1844.  J        LETTERS  TO  CHARLES  SUMNER.  Ill 


To  CHARLES  SUMNER,  ESQ. 

"  Saturday,  Feb.  17,  1844. 

"  MY  DEAR  SIR, — To  my  horror  and  annoyance,  the  court 
has  just  continued  our  cause  to  the  next  term  !  The  counsel 
of  Rhode  Island  moved  it  yesterday,  assigning  for  cause  that 
the  court  was  not  full ;  that  the  Chief  Justice  could  not  sit  by 
reason  of  ill  health ;  Mr.  Justice  Story  did  not  sit,1  and  there 
was  a  vacancy  on  the  bench.  The  court  was  therefore  re- 
duced to  six  judges.  We  opposed  the  motion. 

"  To-day  Mr.  Justice  M'Lean  said,  that  on  interchanging 
views  they  found  that  three  of  the  six  who  would  try  it  have 
formally,  on  the  argument  or  the  plea,  come  to  an  opinion  in 
favor  of  Massachusetts,  and  that  therefore  they  thought  it  not 
proper  to  proceed.  If  Rhode  Island  should  fail,  he  suggested, 
she  might  have  cause  of  dissatisfaction. 

"  I  regret  this  result,  on  all  accounts,  and  especially  that 
the  constant  preparatory  labors  of  a  month  are  for  the  present 
wholly  lost.  I  had  actually  withdrawn  from  the  Senate 
Chamber  to  make  up  this  argument,  which  may  now  never 
be  of  any  use  to  anybody.  .  .  . 

"  Yours,  R.  CHOATE." 


To  CHARLES  SUMNER,  ESQ. 

"Feb.  1844. 

"  MY  DEAR  SUMNER,  —  All  the  papers  came  safe,  except 
as  yet  the  whole  volume  which  is  to  come  by  Harnden.  I 
shall  print  the  useful,  —  keep  all  safely  —  with  the  entire  file. 
Some  of  them  are  very  good.  The  continuance  of  the  cause 
rendered  it  partially  to  be  regretted  that  so  much  trouble  was 
given.  But  it  is  better  to  close  the  printing  at  once. 

•'  Please  thank  Dr.  Palfrey,  and  dry  his  and  Mr.  Felt's 
tears.  I  knew  it  would  be  like  defending  a  city  by  holding 
up  upon  the  walls  against  darts  and  catapults,  little  children, 
images  of  gods,  cats,  dogs,  onions,  and  all  other  Egyptian 
theogonics,  —  but  better  so  than  to  be  taken. 

"  Yours  truly,  R.  CHOATE." 

1  Because  belonging  to  Massachusetts. 


112  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS  CHOATE.         [CHAP.  IV. 

To  CHARLES  SUMNER,  ESQ. 

[No  date.] 

"  DEAR  SUMNER,  —  I  have  just  had  your  letter  read  to  me 
on  a  half -sick  bed,  and  get  up  redolent  of  magnesia  and  roasted 
apples,  to  embrace  you  for  your  Burkeism  generally,  and  for 
your  extracts  and  references.  It  is  odd  that  I  have,  on  my 
last  year's  brief,  a  passage  or  two  from  him  on  that  very  topic 
which  he  appreciates  so  profoundly,  but  am  most  happy  to 
add  yours.  By  the  way, — I  always  admired  that  very  letter 
in  Prior,  if  it  is  the  same. 

"  1  hope  you  review  Burke  in  the  N.  A.,1  though  I  have 
not  got  it  and  you  do  not  say  so.  Mind  that  he  is  the  fourth 
Englishman, —  Shakspeare,  Bacon,  Milton,  Burke.  I  hope 
you  take  one  hundred  pages  for  the  article.  Compare,  con- 
trast, with  Cicero,  —  both  knowing  all  things,  —  but  God 
knows  where  to  end  on  Burke.  No  Englishman  or  country- 
man of  ours  has  the  least  appreciation  of  Burke.  The  Whigs 
never  forgave  the  last  eight  or  ten  years  of  that  life  of  glory, 
and  the  Tories  never  forgave  what  preceded ;  and  we  poor, 
unidealized  democrats  do  not  understand  his  marvellous  Eng- 
lish, universal  wisdom,  illuminated,  omniscient  mind,  and  are 
afraid  of  his  principles.  What  coxcombical  rascal  is  it  that 
thinks  Bolingbroke  a  better  writer?  Take  page  by  page 
the  allusions,  the  felicities,  the  immortalities  of  truth,  variety, 
reason,  height,  depth,  every  thing, —  Bolingbroke  is  a  voluble 
prater  to  Burke  ! 

"•Amplify  on  his  letter  in  reply  to  the  Duke  of  Bedford. 
How  mournful,  melodious,  Cassandra-like !  Out  of  Burke 
might  be  cut  50  Mackintoshes,  175  Macaulays,  40  Jeffreys, 
and  250  Sir  Robert  Peels,  and  leave  him  greater  than  Pitt 
and  Fox  together. 

"  I  seem  to  suppose  your  article  is  not  written, — as  I  hope 
it  is.  God  bless  you.  Yours  truly,  R.  C." 


To  HIS  DAUGHTERS. 


"MY  DEAR  DAUGHTERS  THREE,  —  I  owe  you  so  many 
letters,  that  I  know  not  how  to  begin  to  pay.  I  thought  of 
three  different  letters,  —  one  to  each, — but  I  am  so  dreadfully 


1  North  American  Review. 


1843-1844.]  LETTER  TO  HIS  DAUGHTERS.  113 

busy  that  I  could  not  achieve  such  a  thing ;  so  I  put  my  arms 
around  you  one  and  all,  and  make  one  kiss  serve.  Sarah's 
conundrum  is  tres  belle  and  trZs  Jine,  but  thrice  tres  easy.  Is 
it  not  the  letter  '  A '  ? 

"  Picciola  is  so  famous  and  fine  that  I  am  glad  you  like  it 
and  find  it  easier.  I  am  reading  French  law-books  to  prepare 
for  a  case.  Dear  Minnie  writes  a  pretty  short  letter.  I  hope 
the  girls  are  no  longer  X  to  her  as  she  says.  Be  good,  sober 
girls  and  help  your  mother  in  all  her  cares  and  works. 

"  I  am  awfully  lonesome.  But  I  study  quite  well,  and  am 
preparing  to  argue  a  great  cause. 

*'  It  is  extremely  cold.  Write  each  day  a  full  account  of 
its  studies,  its  events,  its  joys  and  sorrows ;  and  any  new  ideas 
you  have  acquired. 

"  Take  excellent  care  of  my  books.  Do  not  let  any  thing 
be  lost. 

"  Coleridge  I  have ;  but  I  don't  think  you  would  under- 
stand it.  Try  however.  Kiss  your  dear  mother  for  me. 

"  YOUR  AFFECTIONATE  FATHER." 

Mr.  Choate  was  always  interested  in  naval  affairs, 
and  exerted  himself  during  this  session  to  secure  a 
suitable  indemnity  for  the  officers  and  seamen  (or 
their  widows  and  orphans),'who  lost  their  property  by 
wreck  of  United  States  vessels  of  war. 

Another  question  received  still  more  attention. 

On  the  8th  of  January,  1844,  Mr.  Semple,  of  Illinois, 
introduced  a  resolution  requesting  the  President  to 
give  notice  to  the  British  Government  of  a  desire  on 
the  part  of  the  United  States  to  terminate  the  treaty 
allowing  the  joint  occupation  of  the  territory  of  Ore- 
gon. Mr.  Choate  opposed  the  resolution,  because 
negotiation  on  the  subject  had  already  been  invited, 
and  to  pass  the  resolution  would  only  impede  the 
•efforts  of  plenipotentiaries,  while  it  imperilled  the 
interests  of  the  United  States,  and  looked  towards  a 
declaration  of  war.  These  views  in  substance  were 
maintained  by  the  Whigs  generally.  They  were 


114  MEMOIR   OF   RUFUS    CHOATE.        [CHAP.  IV. 

opposed  by  the  opposite  party,  and  by  no  one  more 
ably  than  by  Mr.  Buchanan,  who  directed  his  argu- 
ment mainly  against  the  speech  of  Mr.  Choate.  To 
this  Mr.  Choate  made  a  reply  on  the  19th  of  March, 
expanding  and  enforcing  his  previous  argument.1 

Mr.  Buchanan  had  insisted  upon  the  hostility  of 
the  people  of  the  United  States  to  England.  "  They 
still  remember,"  he  said,  "  the  wrongs  we  had  en- 
dured in  days  past :  they  remembered  these  things 
perhaps  with  too  deep  a  sensibility.  And  although 
Senators  might  please  their  ears  with  the  terms 
4  mother  and  daughter,'  a  vast  majority  of  our  people 
were  penetrated  with  the  conviction  that  to  us  England 
had  ever  acted  the  part  of  a  cruel  step-mother.  It 
was  this  deep-wrought  conviction,  these  associations 
of  former  scenes,  that  lay  at  the  foundation  of  the 
national  enmity  which  too  extensively  prevailed. 
Injuries  on  the  one  side,  and  their  remembrance  on 
the  other,  kept  up  this  ill  blood." 

"  But  is  this  so?  "  said  Mr.  Choate  in  reply.  "  Is 
it  so,  that  the  great  mass  of  the  people  are  pervaded, 
are  'penetrated'  by  a  deep-seated,  'deep-wrought' 
'sentiment  of  national  enmity'  towards  this  particu- 
lar nation,  England  ?  Is  it  so,  that  our  veins  are 
filled  with  '  ill  blood '  towards  that  country,  —  ill 
blood  generated  and  fed  by  the  'memory  of  wrongs 
endured  in  days  past '  ?  This  I  understand  the  Sena- 
tor to  allege,  and  even  to  regret.  I  have  repeated  to 
you,  however,  exactly  what  he  says,  to  be  interpreted 
by  yourselves.  But  thus  I  understand  it.  The  cher- 

1  .This  eloquent  and  powerful  speech  may  be  found  complete  in 
the  first  edition  of  "  The  Life  and  Writings  of  Ruf us  Choate,"  pub- 
lished by  Little,  Brown,  &  Co.,  in  2  vols.,  1862. 


1S43-1844.]  SPEECH   ON   OREGON.  115 

ished  remembrance  of  wrongs  endured  in  past  days, 
the  conviction  that  England  had  ever  acted  the  part 
of  a  '  cruel  step-mother ; '  '  the  associations  of  former 
scenes,'  —  these  bitter  memories,  compose  the  deep 
foundations  of  a  too  extensive  national  hostility ;  these 
things  make  the  great  body  of  the  people  enemies  of 
England,  in  a  time  of  profound  peace.  Thus  I  inter- 
pret the  Senator.  Is  this  so  ?  " 

"  Being,  sir,  through  the  favor  of  a  kind  Provi- 
dence, one  of  the  people  of  America  myself,  and 
having  been  born  and  bred  not  in  cities,  which  are 
said  to  love  England,  but  in  the  country,  which  is 
said,  as  I  understand  the  honorable  Senator,  to  hate 
her ;  and  having  been  astonished  and  pained  to  hear 
it  asserted  that  such  a  people,  one  of  as  happy,  gen- 
erous, and  kind  a  nature  as  the  sun  shines  on,  were 
laboring  under  a  sentiment  so  gloomy  and  so  barba- 
rous as  this, — I  have  been  revolving  the  subject  with 
some  care  and  with  some  feeling.  Exhausted  as  I  am, 
and  as  }-ou  are,  I  cannot  sit  down  without  denouncing, 
in  the  first  place,  the  sentiment  thus,  as  I  understand 
the  Senator,  ascribed  by  him  to  my  countrymen,  as 
immoral,  unchristian,  unchivalrous,  unworthy  of  good 
men,  unworthy  of  'gallant  men  and  men  of  honor ; ' 
and  without,  in  the  second  place,  expressing  my  en- 
tire and  profound  conviction  that  no  such  sentiment 
inhabits  the  bosom  of  the  American  people." 

"  Mr.  President,  we  must  distinguish  a  little.  That 
there  exists  in  this  country  an  intense  sentiment  of 
nationality ;  a  cherished,  energetic  feeling  and  con- 
sciousness of  our  independent  and  separate  national 
existence ;  a  feeling  that  we  have  a  transcendent 


116  MEMOIR   OF   RUFUS    CHOATE.        [CHAP.  IV. 

destiny  to  fulfil,  which  we  mean  to  fulfil ;  a  great 
work  to  do,  which  we  know  how  to  do  and  are  able 
to  do ;  a  career  to  run,  up  which  we  hope  to  ascend 
till  we  stand  on  the  steadfast  and  glittering  summits 
of  the  world ;  a  feeling  that  we  are  surrounded  and 
attended  by  a  noble,  historical  group  of  competitors 
and  rivals,  the  other  nations  of  the  earth,  all  of  whom 
we  hope  to  overtake  and  even  to  distance,  —  such 
a  sentiment  as  this  exists  perhaps  in  the  character  of 
this  people.  And  this  I  do  not  discourage  ;  I  do  not 
condemn.  It  is  easy  to  ridicule  it.  But  '  grand 
swelling  sentiments '  of  patriotism  no  wise  man  will 
despise.  They  have  their  uses.  They  help  to  give  a 
great  heart  to  a  nation ;  to  animate  it  for  the  various 
conflicts  of  its  lot ;  to  assist  it  to  work  out  for  itself  a 
more  exceeding  weight,  and  to  fill  a  larger  measure, 
of  glory.  But,  sir,  that  among  these  useful  and  beau- 
tiful sentiments,  predominant  among  them,  there 
exists  a  temper  of  hostility  towards  this  one  particular 
nation,  to  such  a  degree  as  to  amount  to  a  habit, 
a  trait,  a  national  passion,  —  to  amount  to  a  state  of 
feeling  which  'is  to  be  regretted,'  and  which  really 
threatens  another  war,  —  this  I  earnestly  and  confi- 
dently deny."  .... 

"  No,  sir,  no,  sir.  We  are  above  all  this.  Let  the 
Highland  Clansman,  half  naked,  half  civilized,  half 
blinded  by  the  peat  smoke  of  his  cavern,  have  his 
hereditary  enemy  and  his  hereditary  enmity,  and  keep 
the  keen,  deep,  and  precious  hatred,  set  on  fire  of 
hell,  alive  if  he  can ;  let  the  North  American  Indian 
have  his,  and  hand  it  down  from  father  to  son,  by 
Heaven  knows  what  symbols  of  alligators  and  rattle- 
snakes and  war  clubs  smeared  with  vermilion  and 


1843-1844]  SPEECH   ON  OREGON.  117 

entwined  with  scarlet;  let  such  a  country  as  Poland, 
cloven  to  the  earth,  the  armed  heel  on  her  radiant 
forehead,  her  body  dead,  her  soul  incapable  to  die,  — 
let  her  '  remember  the  wrongs  of  days  long  past ; ' 
let  the  lost  and  wandering  tribes  of  Israel  remember 
theirs,  —  the  manliness  and  the  sympathy  of  the 
world  may  allow  or  pardon  this  to  them ;  but  shall 
America,  young,  free,  prosperous,  just  setting  out  on 
the  highway  of  heaven,  'decorating  and  cheering  the 
elevated  sphere  she  just  begins  to  move  in,  glittering 
like  the  morning  star,  full  of  life  and  joy,'  —  shall 
she  be  supposed  to  be  polluting  and  corroding  her 
noble  and  happy  heart,  by  moping  over  old  stories 
of  Stamp  Act,  and  Tea  Act,  and  the  firing  of  the 
Leopard  upon  the  Chesapeake  in  a  time  of  peace? 
No,  sir ;  no,  sir ;  a  thousand  times  no !  Why,  I 
protest  I  thought  all  that  had  been  settled.  I 
thought  two  wars  had  settled  it  all.  What  else 
was  so  much  good  blood  shed  for  on  so  many  more 
than  classical  fields  of  Revolutionary  glory?  For 
what  was  so  much  good  blood  more  lately  shed  at 
Lundy's  Lane,  at  Fort  Erie,  before  and  behind  the 
lines  at  New  Orleans,  on  the  deck  of  the  Constitu- 
tion, on  the  deck  of  the  Java,  on  the  lakes,  on  the 
sea,  but  to  settle  exactly  those  '  wrongs  of  past  days  '  ? 
And  have  we  come  back  sulky  and  sullen,  from  the 
very  field  of  honor  ?  For  my  country  I  deny  it.  The 
Senator  says  that  our  people  still  remember  these 
4  former  scenes  of  wrong  with  perhaps  too  deep '  a 
sensibility ;  and  that,  as  I  interpret  him,  they  nourish 
a  '  too  extensive '  national  enmity.  How  so  ?  If  the 
feeling  he  attributes  to  them  is  moral,  manly,  credita- 
ble, how  comes  it  to  be  too  deep ;  and  if  it  is  immoral, 


118  MEMOIR   OF   RUFUS    CHOATE.         [CHAP.  IV. 

unmanty,  and  unworthy,  why  is  it  charged  on  them 
at  all  ?  Is  there  a  member  of  this  body  who  would 
stand  up  in  any  educated,  in  any  intelligenj  and 
right-minded  circle  which  he  respected,  and  avow 
that  for  his  part  he  must  acknowledge  that,  looking 
back  through  the  glories  and  atonements  of  two  wars, 
his  veins  were  full  of  ill  blood  to  England ;  that 
in  peace  he  could  not  help  being  her  enemy ;  that 
he  could  not  pluck  out  the  deep-wrought  convic- 
tions and  the  'immortal  hate'  of  the  old  times?  Cer- 
tainly not  one.  And  then,  sir,  that  which  we  feel 
would  do  no  honor  to  ourselves,  shall  we  confess  for 
our  country? 

"  Mr.  President,  let  me  say  that,  in  my  judgment, 
this  notion  of  a  national  enmity  of  feeling  towards 
Great  Britain  belongs  to  a  past  age  of  our  history. 
My  younger  countrymen  are  unconscious  of  it.  They 
disavow  it.  That  generation  in  whose  opinions  and 
feelings  the  actions  and  the  destiny  of  the  next  age  are 
enfolded,  as  the  tree  in  the  germ,  do  not  at  all  com- 
prehend your  meaning,  nor  your  fears,  nor  your  re- 
grets. We  are  born  to  happier  feelings.  We  look 
on  England  as  we  look  on  France.  We  look  on  them 
from  our  new  world,  not  unrenowned,  yet  a  new 
world  still ;  and  the  blood  mounts  to  our  cheeks ; 
our  eyes  swim ;  our  voices  are  stifled  with  emulous- 
ness  of  so  much  glory  ;  their  trophies  will  not  let  us 
sleep :  but  there  is  no  hatred  at  all ;  no  hatred  ;  all 
for  honor,  nothing  for  hate  !  We  have,  we  can  have 
no  barbarian  memory  of  wrongs,  for  which  brave  men 
have  made  the  last  expiation  to  the  brave. 

"  No,  sir :  if  public  men,  or  any  one  public  man, 
think  it  their  duty  to  make  a  war  or  cultivate  the 


1843-1844.]  SPEECH   ON   OREGON.  119 

dispositions  of  war  towards  any  nation,  let  them  per- 
form the  duty,  and  have  done  with  it.  But  do  not 
say  that  there  is  an  unfortunate,  morbid,  impractica- 
ble popular  temper  on  the  subject,  which  you  desire 
to  resist,  but  are  afraid  you  shall  not  be  able  to  resist. 
If  you  will  answer  for  the  politicians,  I  think  I  will 
venture  to  answer  for  the  people." 

Of  the  impression  made  by  this  speech  there  seems 
to  have  been  but  one  judgment.  Two  days  after 
its  delivery  the  resolution  was  rejected  by  a  vote  of 
twenty-eight  to  eighteen.1 

1  The  following  interesting  account,  taken  from  the  "  Baltimore 
Gazette  "  of  Dec.  25,  1877,  gives  the  reminiscences  of  the  Hon.  Alex- 
ander H.  Stephens  of  Georgia :  "  I  entered  Congress,"  said  Mr. 
Stephens,  "  in  1843,  when  I  was  of  the  age  of  thirty-one  years,  when 
the  second  generation  of  the  great  statesmen  were  still  on  the  boards, 
lapping  the  revolutionary  age.  They  were  there  in  the  full  vigor  of 
intellect,  and  still  figuring  prominently  on  the  public  stage.  John 
Quincy  Adams  was  a  member  of  the  House  of  Representatives. 
Calhoun,  Clay,  and  Webster  were  the  three  great  leaders  of  par- 
ticular political  ideas.  .  .  .  One  of  the  first  deep  impressions  made 
upon  my  mind  was  by  Rufus  Choate  of  Massachusetts.  Early  in 
my  first  session  I  had  gone  into  the  Senate  to  see  Mr.  Berrien  of 
Georgia.  When  I  was  about  leaving  the  senate  chamber  the  order 
of  the  day  was  called,  and  before  I  reached  the  door  the  tones  of 
voice  of  a  speaker  attracted  my  attention.  I  turned  in  the  direc- 
tion of  the  orator,  and  saw  before  me  a  remarkable-looking  man  of 
medium  size,  with  raven  locks,  a  striking  black  eye,  a  pallid  cheek, 
a  bearing  as  if  fully  charged  with  his  subject,  and  his  hand  trembling 
as  if  witli  electricity.  The  Chair  had  announced  the  gentleman  from 
Massachusetts,  and  in  an  instant  I  knew  it  must  be  Rufus  Choate. 
I  soon  became  very  much  interested  in  his  speaking.  His  matter 
and  style  were  grand,  and  became  more  so  as  he  advanced.  Every 
one  was  enraptured  with  his  eloquence.  He  was  replying  to  a 
speech  made  by  Mr.  Buchanan,  on  a  resolution  to  give  notice  to  the 
English  Government  of  a  termination  of  the  joint  occupancy  of 
Oregon.  Mr.  Buchanan  had  taken  the  extreme  view,  calculated  to 
arouse  a  war-feeling.  He  spoke  of  a  deep-seated  enmity  in  the 


120  MEMOIR  OF  RUFtS   CHOATE.         [CHAP.  IV. 

There  was  probably  no  subject  which  awakened  a 
deeper  interest  during  this  session,  or  called  out  a 
greater  amount  of  talent  in  discussion,  than  the  tariff. 
Soon  after  the  meeting  of  Congress  Mr.  M'Duffie 
asked  leave  to  introduce  a  bill  to  revive  the  tariff  of 
1833.  On  this  more  than  twenty  senators,  the  leaders 
and  veterans  of  that  august  body,  spoke  at  different 
times,  most  of  them  with  elaborate  and  formal  argu- 
ment, and  some  of  them  more  than  once.  Mr.  Choate 

breasts  of  our  people  over  the  wrongs  inflicted  by  England  in  former 
days,  and  of  the  ill  blood  and  hate  that  existed  in  this  country  in 
consequence  of  those  wrongs. 

"The  'Globe'  of  1844,  in  reporting  the  reply  of  Mr.  Choate,  says 
it  cannot  finish  the  report  of  the  speech,  owing  to  the  sudden  indis- 
position of  the  reporter.  I  can  repeat  the  omitted  portion  even  at 
this  distance  of  time,  so  profound  was  the  impression  made  upon 
me.  When  Mr.  Choate  came  to  this  part  of  Buchanan's  speech  he 
seemed  to  rise  to  a  majesty  that  impressed  his  audience  more  deeply 
than  I  had  ever  witnessed  any  orator  accomplish  on  a  like  occasion." 
[Here  follows  a  long  quotation  of  several  passages  given  above.] 
"  Ever  after  this  speech  I  never  let  an  opportunity  go  by  to  hear 
Mr.  Choate.  I  consider  him  the  most  interesting  man  for  impassioned 
oratory  I  ever  heard.  He  had  a  faculty  which  few  men  possessed 
of  never  tiring  his  hearers.  Several  years  after,  I  heard  him  in  the 
Supreme  Court  argue  the  case  of  the  boundary  line  between  Rhode 
Island  and  Massachusetts.  It  was  as  dull  a  case  as  any  ordinary 
land-ejectment  suit.  I  was  at  a  loss  to  understand  how  Mr.  Choate 
could  interest  an  audience  under  such  circumstances.  The  court 
had  been  occupied  five  days  by  some  of  the  ablest  lawyers.  The 
room  was  thronged  to  hear  Choate's  reply.  From  the  moment  he 
commenced  he  enchained  the  audience,  and  enlivened  the  dull  sub- 
ject by  apt  historical  allusions  and  pleasing  illustrations.  The  logical 
connection  of  his  argument  was  excellent,  and  so  well  arranged  that 
in  two  hours  he  had  finished  a  thorough  argument,  which  was  inter- 
spersed throughout  with  sublime  imagery.  Every  paragraph  was  as 
the  turning  of  a  kaleidoscope,  where  new  and  brilliant  images  are 
presented  at  every  turn.  At  the  conclusion  of  that  speech  I  was 
confirmed  in  the  opinion  that  he  was  the  greatest  orator  I  ever 
heard,  —  in  this  respect  greater  than  Calhoun,  Clay,  or  Webster." 


1843-1844.]  TARIFF  BILL.  121 

addressed  the  Senate  first  on  the  13th  and  15th  of 
April,  in  an  exhaustive  historical  .discussion  of  the 
early  tariffs,  especially  showing  that  that  of  1789  was 
essentially  a  tariff  of  protection,  and  deriving  from 
this  a  general  argument  in  favor  of  a  protective 
policy  ;  enlivening  the  necessarily  dry  enumeration 
of  individual  opinions,  and  the  details  of  an  old  sub- 
ject, by  occasional  pleasantry,  and  sometimes  by  high 
and  fervid  eloquence.  Mr.  Benton  had  spoken  of  the 
evils  of  an  irregular  policy.  "  Perhaps,"  replied  Mr. 
Choate,  "I  might  not  entirely  concur  with  the  dis- 
tinguished senator  from  Missouri,  in  his  estimate  of 
the  magnitude  of  the  evil.  An  evil  it  no  doubt  is. 
Sometimes,  in  some  circumstances,  irregularity  would 
be  an  intolerable  one.  In  the  case  he  puts,  of  a 
balloon  in  the  air,  'now  bursting  with  distention, 
now  collapsing  from  depletion,'  it  would  be  greatly 
inconvenient.  But  all  greatness  is  irregular.  All 
irregularity  is  not  defect,  is  not  ruin.  Take  a  differ- 
ent illustration  from  that  of  the  balloon.  Take  the 
New  England  climate  in  summer ;  you  would  think 
the  world  was  coming  to  an  end.  Certain  recent 
heresies  on  that  subject  may  have  had  a  natural  origin 
there.  Cold  to-day,  hot  to-morrow  ;  mercury  at  eighty 
degrees  in  the  morning,  with  a  wind  at  south-west, 
and  in  three  hours  more  a  sea-turn,  wind  at  east,  a 
thick  fog  from  the  very  bottom  of  the  ocean,  and  a 
fall  of  forty  degrees  of  Fahrenheit ;  now  so  dry  as  to 
kill  all  the  beans  in  New  Hampshire,  then  floods 
carrying  off  the  bridges  and  dams  of  the  Penobscot 
and  Connecticut ;  snow  in  Portsmouth  in  July,  and 
the  next  day  a  man  and  a  yoke  of  oxen  killed  by 
lightning  in  Rhode  Island,  —  you  would  think  the 


122  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS  CHOATE.          [CHAP.  IV. 

world  was  twenty  times  coming  to  an  end!  But  I 
don't  know  how  it  is  ;  we  go  along ;  the  early  and 
the  latter  rain  falls  each  in  his  season ;  seed  time  and 
harvest  do  not  fail ;  the  sixty  days  of  hot  corn  weather 
are  pretty  sure  to  be  measured  out  to  us  ;  the  Indian 
summer  with  its  bland  south-west  and  mitigated  sun- 
shine brings  all  up ;  and  on  the  25th  of  November,  or 
thereabout,  being  Thursday,  three  millions  of  grate- 
ful people,  in  meeting-houses,  or  around  the  family 
board,  give  thanks  for  a  year  of  health,  plenty,  and 
happiness.  All  irregularity,  whatever  the  cause,  is 
not  defect  nor  ruin." 

He  closed  with  a  word  for  Massachusetts,  which 
had  been  assailed  for  her  opinions.  "  Permit  me  to 
say,  Sir,  that  you  must  take  the  States  of  America  as 
you  find  them.  All  of  them  have  their  peculiarities ; 
all  have  their  traits  ;  all  have  their  histories,  tra- 
ditions, characters.  They  had 'them  before  they  came 
into  the  Union  ;  they  will  have  them  after 

'  Rome  in  Tiber  melts,  and  the  wide  arch  of  the  ranged  empire  falls .' 

South  Carolina  has  hers ;  Massachusetts  has  hers. 
She  will  continue  to  think,  speak,  print,  just  what  she 
pleases,  on  every  subject  that  may  interest  the  patriot, 
the  moralist,  the  Christian.  But  she  will  be  true  to 
the  Constitution.  She  sat  among  the  most  affection- 
ate at  its  cradle ;  she  will  follow —  the  saddest  of  the 
procession  of  sorrow  —  its  hearse.  She  sometimes  has 
stood  for  twenty  years  together  in  opposition  to  the 
general  government.  She  cannot  promise  the  im- 
plicit politics  of  some  of  her  neighbors.  I  trust,  how- 
ever, that  she  will  not  be  found  in  opposition  to  the 
next  administration.  I  have  heard  that  once  her 


1843-1844.]  DEBATE   ON  THE    TARIFF.  123 

Senate  refused  to  vote  thanks  for  a  victory  for  which 
her  people  had  shed  their  blood.  Sir,  you  must  take 
the  States  as  you  find  them  ;  you  must  take  her  as 
you  find  her.  Be  just  to  her,  and  she  will  be  a  bless- 
ing to  you.  She  will  sell  to  you  at  fair  prices,  and  on 
liberal  credits ;  she  will  buy  of  you  when  England  and 
Canada  and  the  West  Indies  and  Ireland  will  not; 
she  will  buy  your  staples,  and  mould  them  into  shapes 
of  beauty  and  use,  and  send  them  abroad  to  represent 
your  taste  and  your  genius  in  the  great  fairs  of  civili- 
zation. Something  thus  she  may  do,  to  set  upon  your 
brow  that  crown  of  industrial  glory  to  which  'the 
laurels  that  a  Csesar  reaps  are  weeds.'  More,  Sir, 
more.  Although  she  loves  not  war,  nor  any  of  its 
works,  —  although  her  interests,  her  morals,  her  in- 
telligence, are  all  against  it,  —  although  she  is  with 
South  Carolina,  with  all  the  South  on  that  ground,  — 
yet,  Sir,  at  the  call  of  honor,  at  the  call  of  liberty,  if 
I  have  read  her  annals  true,  she  will  be  found  stand- 
ing, where  once  she  stood,  side  by  side  with  you  on 
the  darkened  and  perilous  ridges  of  battle.  Be  just 
to  her,  —  coldly,  severely,  constitutionally  just, —  and 
she  will  be  a  blessing  to  you." 

The  debate  closed  on  the  31st  of  May.  Mr.  M'Duffie, 
as  having  opened  the  discussion,  occupied  two  days 
in  replying  to  his  different  opponents.  His  hopes  of 
carrying  the  bill,  if  ever  entertained,  had  long  since 
vanished ;  and  this  may  account  in  a  measure  for  the 
unusual  tone  of  his  speech.  The  first  portion  of  it 
was  mainly  addressed  to  Mr.  Choate,  and  charged  him 
with  drawing  very  largely,  if  not  exclusively,  upon 
his  imagination  for  his  facts,  and  spinning  and  weav- 
ing a  web  "  about  the  texture  of  a  cobweb,  and  pro- 


124  MEMOIR  OF  RIIFUS   CHOATE.          [CHAP.  IV. 

duced  very  much  in  the  same  way."  He  asserted 
that  he  gave  isolated,  if  not  garbled,  extracts  from 
the  speeches  of  members  of  the  first  Congress,  "  pick- 
ing up  from  Grub  street  a  worm-eaten  pamphlet,  with 
opinions  that  would  form  an  appropriate  argument 
for  the  leader  of  a  band  of  highway  robbers."  "  I 
confess,  Mr.  President,"  he  went  on  to  say,  "that 
when  I  followed  the  honorable  senator,  hopping  and 
skipping  from  legislative  debates  to  catch-penny 
pamphlets,  gathering  alike  from  the  flowers  and  the 
offal  of  history,  I  found  it  difficult  to  decide  whether 
his  labors  more  resembled  those  of  a  humming-bird  in 
a  flower-garden,  or  a  butterfly  in  a  farm-yard."  There 
was  more  of  the  same  sort.  The  answer  was  imme- 
diate, and  in  a  strain  which  Mr.  Choate  in  no  other 
case  ever  indulged  in.  "  I  must  throw  myself,  Mr. 
President,"  he  said,  "  on  the  indulgence  of  the  Senate 
for  a  few  minutes  ;  and  offer  a  few  words  of  explana- 
tion, made  necessary  by  the  senator's  comments  upon 
a  portion  of  the  remarks  which  I  had  the  honor  to 
submit  to  you  some  six  weeks  ago.  I  do  not  propose 
to  take  notice  of  any  thing  which  he  has  said  to  other 
senators,  nor  of  what  I  may  call  the  general  tariff 
matter  of  his  speech.  If  others  have  been  assailed,  as 
I  have  been,  by  stale  jests  or  new  jests,  stale  argu- 
ment or  new  argument,  stale  denunciations  or  fresh, 
they  well  know  how  to  take  care  of  themselves.  I 
rejoice,  too,  to  see  that  the  protective  policy  of  the 
country  is  taking  excellent  care  of  itself.  One  more 
such  vote  as  another  branch  of  Congress  has  just 
given,  —  one  such  election  as  will  occupy,  reward, 
and  illustrate  the  approaching  summer  and  autumn, 
—  and  the  universal  labor  of  America  will  be  safe 


1843-1844.]  KEPLY    TO    MR.    M'DUFFIE.  125 

from  the  jokers  of  old  jokes,  or  the  jokers  of  new 
jokes.  If  then  it  be  assailed  by  the  arguments  of  men 
or  the  arms  of  rebels,  it  will,  I  hope,  be  quite  able  to 
defend  itself  against  them  also. 

"  Confining  myself,  then,  Mr.  President,  altogether 
to  the  senator's  notice  of  me,  I  must  begin  by  saying 
that  never  in  my  life  have  I  been  so  completely  taken 
by  surprise  as  by  this  day's  exhibition,  just  closed, 
of  good  manners,  sweet  temper,  courteous  tone,  fair 
statement  of  his  opponent's  position,  masterly  reply 
to  it,  excellent  stories  —  all  out  of  Joe  Miller  —  ex- 
temporaneous jokes  of  six  weeks'  preparation,  gleaned 
from  race-ground,  cockpit,  and  barn-yard,  Avith  which 
the  senator  from  South  Carolina  has  been  favoring 
the  Senate  and  amusing  himself.  I  came  into  the 
Senate  yesterday  with  the  impression  that  the  occa- 
sion was  to  be  one  of  a  sort  of  funereal  character.  I 
supposed  that  this  bill  of  the  senator,  never  .fairly 
alive  at  all,  but  just  by  your  good-nature  admitted  to 
have  been  so  for  a  moment  to  make  a  tenancy  by 
courtesy,  and  now  confessedly  dead,  was  to  be  buried. 
I  came  in,  therefore,  with  composed  countenance,  ap- 
propriate meditations  on  the  nothingness  of  men  and 
things,  and  a  fixed  determination  not  to  laugh,  if  I 
could  help  it.  The  honorable  senator,  I  supposed, 
would  pronounce  the  eulogy,  and  then  an  end.  Even 
he,  I  expected,  would  come  rather  to  bury  than  to 
praise.  I  thought  it  not  improbable  that  we  should 
hear  the  large  and  increasing  majority  of  the  Ameri- 
can people  proclaimed  robbers  and  plunderers,  — 
because  that  we  hear  from  the  same  source  so  often, 
some  threatening  of  nullification  in  old  forms  or  new, 
some  going  to  death  on  sugar,  some  '  purging  of  the 


126  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS  CHOATE.         [CHAP.  IV. 

passions  by  pity  and  terror,'  —  and  then  the  ceremony 
would  be  closed  and  all  be  over. 

"No  tongue,  then,  can  express  the  surprise  with 
which  I  heard  the  honorable  senator  waste  a  full  hour 
or  more  of  the  opening  of  his  speech,  and  some  pre- 
cious health  and  strength,  in  slowly  dealing  out  a  suc- 
cession of  well-premeditated  and  smallish  sarcasms  on 
me.  I  was  surprised,  because  I  think  the  Senate  will 
on  all  sides  bear  witness  to  what,  under  the  very  pe- 
culiar circumstances,  I  may  be  excused  for  calling  to 
mind,  —  my  own  general  habit  of  courtesy  here.  Not 
participating  with  excessive  frequency  in  debate,  nor 
wholly  abstaining  from  it,  I  have  sought  always  to 
observe  the  manner,  as  I  claim  to  possess  the  senti- 
ments, of  a  gentleman.  In  such  a  body  as  this,  such 
a  course  is,  indeed,  no  merit  and  no  distinction.  It  is 
but  an  unconscious  and  general  sense  of  the  presence 
in  which  we  speak. 

"  In  the  instance  of  this  discussion  of  the  tariff  I 
am  totally  unaware  of  any  departure  from  what  I 
have  made  my  habit.  The  senator  from  South  Caro- 
lina, had,  as  he  had  a  perfect  right  to  do,  introduced 
a  proposition  which,  adopted,  would  sweep  the  sweet 
and  cheerful  surface  of  Massachusetts  with  as  accom- 
plished, with  as  consummated  a  desolation,  as  if  fire 
and  famine  passed  over  it ;  and  would  permanently, 
and  widely  as  I  believed,  and  most  disastrously,  affect 
the  great  interests  and  all  parts  of  the  country.  That 
proposition  I  opposed  ;  debating  it,  however,  in  a 
general  tone,  and  with  particular  expression  of  high 
respect  for  the  abilities  and  motives  of  the  honorable 
Senator,  and  in  a  manner  from  first  to  last  which 
could  give  no  just  offence  to  any  man.  I  acknowledge 


1810-1844.]  REPLY    TO    MR.   M'DUFFIE.  127 

ray  surprise,  therefore,  at  the  course  of  the  Senator's 
reply.  But  I  feel  no  stronger  emotion.  I  do  not 
even  remember  all  the  good  thiirgs  at  which  his 
friends  did  him  the  kindness  to  smile.  If  he  shall 
ever  find  occasion  to  say  them  over  again,  he  will 
have,  I  presume,  no  difficulty  in  re-gathering  them 
from  the  same  jest-book,  the  same  historian  of  Kil- 
kenny, the  same  race-ground  and  cockpit  and  barn- 
yard, where  he  picked  them  up.  They  will  serve  his 
purpose  a  second  time  altogether  as  well  as  they  have 
done  now."  From  this  the  speaker  went  on  distinctly 
and  cogently  to  reaffirm  and  prove  his  former  position, 
respecting  the  law  of  1789,  not  a  new  and  original 
idea,  as  had  been  charged  upon  him,  but  held  by 
Washington,  Jefferson,  Madison,  and  Dallas,  "almost 
as  old  indeed  as  some  of  his  opponent's  newest  jests 
and  best  stories." 

Another  charge  he  meets  with  peremptory  denial. 
"  What  does  the  Senator  say  next  ?  Well,  Sir,  as  far 
as  I  could  make  out  a  certain  enormous  and  broken- 
winged  metaphor,  in  which  he  slowly  and  painfully 
wrapped  up  his  meaning  rather  than  displayed  it, 
beginning  with  his  grandfather's  regimentals,  and 
ending  —  I  am  sure  I  could  not  see  how — with  a 
butterfly  and  a  barn-yard  —  a  Homeric  metaphor  —  a 
longue  queue  —  as  well  as  I  could  take  the  sense  of  the 
figure,  he  meant  to  say  that,  in  my  former  remarks,  I 
contrived  by  selecting  my  own  speakers,  by  picking 
arid  choosing  from  what  they  said,  and  by  interpola- 
tions of  my  own,  to  give  a  garbled  and  unfair  exposi- 
tion of  that  great  debate,  its  course  and  topics  and 
interpretative  effect.  In  fewer  words,  his  metaphor 
went  to  accuse  me  of  having  confined  myself  to  a 


128  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS   C  HO  ATE.          [CHAP.  IV. 

culling  out  of  a  few  paragraphs  here  and  there  from 
a  debate  of  two  or  three  hundred  pages,  and  then 
assuming  to  pass  off  these  as  specimens  of  the  whole  ; 
whereas  they  afforded  no  idea  of  it  whatsoever.  It  is 
cheating  by  samples,  I  think,  which  the  Senator  fig- 
uratively charges. 

"  Now,  Sir,  I  deny  this  charge.  I  dare  him  to  the 
proof.  I  challenge  him ;  I  challenge  any  man  to 
produce  a  particle  of  proof  of  it.  ...  I  meet  the 
Senator's  bad  metaphor  by  good  plain  English.  The 
accusation  or  insinuation  is  totally  groundless  and 
totally  unjust.  Let  the  Senator  sustain  it,  if  he  can. 
There  is  the  speech  as  it  was  delivered.  He  has  at 
last  found  the  debate  which  it  attempted  to  digest. 
If  it  was  not  fully  and  fairly  done,  let  him  show  it." 

Beyond  assertion  he  then  went  on  to  demonstrate 
the  correctness  of  his  position  by  ample  quotations 
from  impregnable  documents,  occasionally  throwing 
in  sentiments  of  a  higher  character,  and  closed  with 
a  quiet  and  beautiful  appeal  to  the  Senators  from 
Virginia  and  Georgia.  Speaking  of  a  proposition  of 
Mr.  M'Duffie,  he  says,  to  indicate  its  absurdity  :  "  To 
show  how  willing  he  is  to  follow  in  the  footsteps  of 
the  fathers,  the  Senator  tells  us  '  he  will  compound  for 
the  duties  of  1789  ;  nay,  he  will  double  them  even.' 
Really,  Sir,  he  is  magnificent.  Will  he  give  us  back 
the  world  and  the  age  of  1789?  Will  he  give  us 
back  our  hours  of  infancy,  the  nurse,  the  ballad,  the 
cradle  ?  Will  he  take  off  our  hands  the  cotton-mill 
and  woollen-mill^  and  glass-house,  and  all  the  other 
various,  refined,  and  sensitive  labor  and  accumulation 
which  we  have  to  protect ;  and  will  he  give  us  back 
the  plain  household,  and  far-inland  manufactures  and 


1843-1844.]  REPLY   TO   MR.   M'DUFFIE.  129 

mechanical  arts  of  the  olden  time  ?  Will  he  give  us 
back  a  Europe  at  war,  and  a  sea  whitened  by  the  can- 
vas of  our  thriving  neutrality  ?  Will  he  give  us  back 
the  whole  complex  state  of  the  case  which  made  those 
duties  sufficient  then,  without  the  reproduction  of 
which  they  would  be  good  for  nothing  now? 

"  Nay,  Sir,  not  to  be  difficult,  the  Senator  '  would 
even  be  willing  to  give  us  the  rates  of  the  tariff  of 
1816.'  This  is  rich  also.  He  is  perfectly  willing  to 
do  almost  any  thing  which  is  less  than  enough.  The 
labor  of  the  country  will  not  thank  him  for  his  tariff 
of  1816.  That  labor  remembers  perfectly  well  that, 
under  that  tariff,  manufactures  and  mechanical  arts 
fell  down  in  four  years  from  an  annual  production  of 
over  one  hundred  and  fifty  millions  to  an  annual 
product  of  only  six  and  thirty  millions. 

"  The  honorable  Senator,  applying  himself  dili- 
gently to  the  study  of  this  debate  of  1789,  says  that 
he  finds  that  it  turned  very  much  on  the  molasses 
duty.  This  suggests  to  him,  first,  a  good  joke  about 
1  switchel '  and  then  the  graver  historical  assertion 
that  '  Massachusetts  has  always  been  more  sensitive 
about  her  own  pockets,  and  less  about  her  neigh- 
bors', than  any  State  in  the  Union.'  Now,  Sir,  I 
should  be  half  inclined  to  move  a  question  with  him 
upon  the  good  taste  of  such  a  sally  as  that,  if  I  did 
not  greatly  doubt  whether  he  and  I  have  any  stand- 
ards of  taste  in  common.  I  should  be  inclined  to  inti- 
mate to  him  that  such  a  sarcasm  upon  a  State  five 
hundred  miles  distant,  which  he  does  not  represent,  to 
which  he  is  not  responsible,  is  no  very  decisive  proof 
of  spirit  or  sense.  He  will  judge  whether  such  things 
have  not  a  tendency  to  rankle  in  and  alienate  hearts 

9 


130  MEMOIR   OF  RUFUS   CHOATE.         [CHAP.  IV. 

that  would  love  you,  if  you  would  permit  them.  Let 
us  remember  that  we  have  a  union  and  the  affections 
of  union  to  preserve,  as  well  as  an  argument  to  con- 
duct, a  theory  to  maintain,  or  a  jest,  old  or  new,  to 
indulge.  .  .  .  It  is  a  grief  to  the  honorable  Senator  to 
see  protection  sentiments  spreading  at  the  South. 
'  Sun  !  how  I  hate  thy  beams ! ' 

I  rejoice  to  see  this,  on  the  contrary.  I  should  be 
glad  of  it,  though  it  should  raise  up  a  manufacturing 
competitor  in  every  State  of  the  Union.  I  rejoice  to 
perceive  symptoms  of  a  return  to  the  homogeneous 
nature  and  harmonious  views  of  an  earlier  and  better 
day.  I  rejoice  to  see  that  moral  and  physical  causes, 
the  power  of  steam,  the  sober  second  thought  of  the 
people,  are  combining  to  counteract  the  effects  of  a 
wide  domain,  and  local  diversities,  on  opinion  and  on 
feeling.  I  am  glad  to  see  the  whole  nation  reassem- 
bling, as  it  were  —  the  West  giving  up,  the  South 
holding  not  back  —  reassembling  on  the  vast  and  high 
table-land  of  the  Union  !  To  the  Senator  from  Geor- 
gia [Mr.  Berrien],  and  to  the  Senator  from  Virginia 
[Mr.  Rives],  who  have  so  conspicuously  contributed 
to  this  great  result,  I  could  almost  presume  to  counsel, 
persevere  as  you  have  begun. 

'  Sic  vobis  itur  ad  astra  ! ' 

'  That  way,'  in  the  vindication  of  this  policy,  in  the 
spread  of  this  light,  in  the  enforcement  of  this  truth 
— '  that  way,  glory  lies.'  " 

With  a  brief  reply  and  rejoinder,  the  debate  here 
ended,  and  the  question,  on  an  amendment  which 
brought  the  subject  itself  before  the  Senate,  was 
decided,  —  twenty-five  to  eighteen,  —  against  the  res- 
olution. 


1843-1844.]  FRAGMENTARY   JOURNAL.  131 

Congress  adjourned  on  the  17th  of  June.  The 
plans  formed  for  study  during  the  recess  —  to  him,  of 
course,  no  remission  of  labor  —  will  be  seen  by  his 
journal.  The  first  few  leaves  have  an  earlier  date. 

"  December  25,  1843.  Washington.  —  It  ought  to  be  quite 
easy  for  me  here,  when  not  actually  preparing  for  an  imme- 
diate discussion,  to  command  an  hour  for  this  journal  —  in 
its  plan  altogether  the  best  of  the  many  [  have  attempted. 
An  hour  then  I  prescribe  myself  for  this  labor  and  this 
pleasure  and  this  help.  I  think  it  may  be  usually  an  hour 
of  the  evening ;  but  it  must  be  an  hour  of  activity  and  exer- 
tion of  mind. 

"  I  read,  as  part  of  a  course,  two  pages  in  Johnson's  Pope. 
He  records  fairly,  forcibly,  and  most  pleasingly  in  point  of 
expression,  his  filial  piety ;  and  asserts  and  accounts  for  his 
sorrow  for  Gay's  death.  He  then  treats  the  subject  of  the 
publication  of  his  letters.  The  first  question  is,  Did  Pope 
contrive  a  surreptitious  publication,  in  order  to  be  able  to 
publish  himself  with  less  exposure  to  imputation  of  vanity  ? 
Johnson  first  tells  the  story  exactly  as  if  he  believed,  and 
meant  to  put  it  forth  as  the  true  account  of  the  matter,  that 
Curl  acted  without  Pope's  procurement  or  knowledge ;  and 
that  he  was  surprised  and  angry  at  Curl's  conduct.  He  then 
gives  Curl's  account,  which,  true  or  false,  does  not  implicate 
Pope  ;  and  declares  his  belief  of  its  truth.  Somewhat  unex- 
pectedly then,  he  intimates,  and  at  length  formally  declares 
his  own  opinion  to  be,  that  Pope  incited  the  surreptitious 
publication  to  afford  himself  a1  pretext  to  give  the  world  his 
genuine  correspondence.  His  proofs  and  arguments  are  at 
least  few  and  briefly  set  forth.  At  a  moment  of  less  occupa- 
tion I  will  examine  the  question  by  Roscoe's  helps,  and 
express  the  results. 

"  Milton's  father  was  the  son  of  a  Papist,  who  disinherited 
him  for  becoming  a  Protestant  at  Oxford.  His  first  instructor 
was  a  private  instructor,  and  was  Young,  a  Puritan,  who 
had  been  also  an  exile  to  Hamburg  for  his  religious  opinions. 
His  father,  too,  was  educated  at  the  University,  was  of  a 
profession  which  a  gentleman  might  follow,  and  a  lover  and 
writer  of  music.  His  mother  was  of  a  good  family,  and 
greatly  esteemed  for  all  the  virtues;  and  pre-eminently  for 


132  MEMOIR   OF   RUFUS    CHOATE.        [CHAP.  IV. 

her  charity.  The  earliest  influences,  therefore,  on  the  tran- 
scendent capacities  yet  in  infancy  and  childhood,  might  dispose 
to  seriousness ;  to  thoughtfulness  ;  to  the  love  and  apprecia- 
tion of  musical  sounds  and  successions ;  to  sympathy  for,  and 
attention  to  human  suffering;  to  tendencies  towards  the 
classes  of  religious  Puritanism  ;  to  dignity  and  to  self-respect, 
as  descended,  on  both  sides,  of  gentle  ancestry,  and  imbibing 
its  first  sentiments  from  refined  and  respectable  minds,  tastes, 
and  character.  Milton  passed  through  no  childhood  and  youth 
of  annoyances,  destitution,  illiberal  toil,  or  unrefined  associa- 
tion. It  was  the  childhood  and  youth  of  a  beautiful  and  vast 
genius ;  irresistibly  attracted,  systematically  set  to  studies  of 
language  ;  the  classical  and  modern  tongues  and  literature ; 
already  marking  its  tendencies  by  recreating  in  the  harmonious 
and  most  copious  speech  and  flow,  and  in  the  flushed  and 
warm  airs  of  Spenser ;  in  the  old  romances ;  in  its  own  first 
'thoughts  voluntarily  moving  harmonious  numbers.'  Except 
that  his  eyes  and  head  ached  with  late  hours  of  reading,  till 
he  went  to  Cambridge,  in  his  seventeenth  year,  I  suspect  he 
had  been  as  happy  as  he  had  been  busy  and  improving." 


"  Boston,  June  23  [1844].  —  It  is  necessary  to  reconstruct 
a  life  at  home  ;  life  professional  and  yet  preparatory  ;  educa- 
tional, in  reference  to  other  than  professional  life.  In  this 
scheme  the  first  resolution  must  be  to  do  whatever  business  I 
can  find  to  do  —  tot.  vir.  maximo  conatu  —  as  for  my  daily 
bread.  To  enable  me  to  do  this,  I  must  revive  and  advance 
the  faded  memory  of  the  law ;  and  I  can  devise  no  better 
method  than  that  of  last  summer,  —  the  preparation  of  a 
careful  brief,  on  every  case  in  Metcalf's  last  volume,  of  an 
argument  in  support  of  the  decision.  In  preparing  this  brief, 
law,  logic,  eloquence  must  be  studied  and  blended  together. 
The  airy  phrase,  the  turn  of  real  reply,  are  to  be  sought  and 
written  out.  I  may  embody  in  a  commonplace  the  principles 
acquired  ;  and  I  shall  particularly  strive  to  become  as  famil- 
iar with  the  last  cases  of  the  English  and  Federal  benches  at 
least,  and  if  possible,  of  those  of  New  York,  Maine,  and  New 
Hampshire,  as  of  our  own.  I  have  lost  the  whole  course  of 
those  adjudications  for  some  years.  These  studies,  —  and 
this  practice,  —  for  the  law. 

"  I  advance  to  plans  of  different  studies,  and  to  the  training 


1843-1844.]          CONTINUATION  OF  JOURNAL.  133 

for  a  different  usefulness,  and  a  more  conspicuous  exertion. 
To  avoid  a  hurtful  diffusion  of  myself  over  too  wide  and 
various  a  space  —  laboriose  nihil  agens  - —  I  at  once  confine 
my  rhetorical  exercitations  within  strict  and  impassable  lim- 
its. I  propose  to  translate  Cicero's  Catiline  Orations ;  or  as 
many  as  I  can,  beginning  with  the  first ;  with  notes.  The 
object  is,  —  1st,  The  matter  and  manner  of  a  great  master 
of  speech ;  2d,  English  debating  style,  and  words ;  3d,  The 
investigation  of  the  truth  of  a  remarkable  portion  of  history. 
All  the  helps  are  near  me.  I  shall  turn  the  Orator,  as  nearly 
as  I  can,  into  a  debater  statesman,  of  this  day,  in  Parliament 
and  in  Congress. 

"  With  this,  I  shall  read  Burke's  American  speeches,  writ- 
ing observations  on  them.  The  object  is  his  matter  and 
manner ;  useful  gleanings ;  rules  of  speech.  But  to  this  is 
to  be  added  the  study  of  politics.  And  for  this  circumstances 
are  propitious.  The  approaching  election  requires  that  the 
true  national  policy  of  the  country  should  be  impressed  on 
the  minds  of  the  people  of  America.  To  elect  a  Whig  ad- 
ministration is  to  prefer,  and  to  secure  the  practical  reali- 
zation of  that  policy.  To  induce  the  people  to  elect  such 
an  administration,  you  must  first  teach  them  to  prefer,  to 
desire  that  policy.  To  do  that  it  must  be  explained,  con- 
trasted, developed,  decorated.  To  do  that  it  is  to  be  deeply 
studied.  I  mean,  therefore,  to  compose  discourses  on  the 
tariff ;  on  Texas ;  on  currency ;  on  the  general  points  of 
difference,  and  grounds  of  choice  between  the  parties,  and 
the  like,  —  embodying  what  I  understand  to  be  the  Whig 
politics,  and  the  sound  politics  of  the  hour.  In  all,  through 
all  —  an  impulsive  presentation  of  truths  —  such  an  one  as 
will  move  to  the  giving  of  votes  for  particular  men,  repre- 
senting particular  opinions,  is  the  aim.  Every  one  ought 
to  be  and  to  involve,  1st,  an  honest  study  of  the  topic  — 
and  so  an  advance  in  political  knowledge ;  2ndly,  a  diligent 
effort  to  move  the  public  mind  to  action  by  its  treatment ; 
and  so  an  exercise  in  speech.  '  Princip.  fons  sapientice.' 
Truth  for  the  staple  — good  taste  the  form — persuasion  to 
act  —  for  the  end. 

"July  16.  —  The  gift  of  an  interleaved  Digest  of  Mas- 
sachusetts Cases  suggests  and  renders  practicable  a  plan  of 
reviewing  and  reviving  the  law.  I  shall  add  the  fifth  volume 
of  Metcalf  to  the  Digest  as  it  stands,  and  in  so  doing  advert 
to  the  whole  series  of  decisions.  This  will  not  interfere 


134  MEMOIR   OF   RUFUS  CHOATE.          [CHAP.  IV. 

with  my  purpose  of  making  a  frequent  brief  on  legal  theses. 
A  trial  of  myself  in  that  way  yesterday  encouraged  me  to 
suppose  I  can  recall  and  advance  my  law.  I  am  sure  I  have 
hit  on  the  right  mode  of  study,  by  digest,  and  brief ;  and  I 
feel  in  the  resolution  a  revival  of  zeal,  fondness,  and  ability 
to  work. 

"  1 1th  July.  —  Engaged  in  translating  Cicero  against  Cati- 
line. I  would  study  that  famous  incident  in  the  Roman 
history.  I  must  assume  Cicero's  orations  to  be  evidence  of 
the  highest  authority  remaining.  He  pronounced  them  — ' 
one  in  the  presence  of  Catiline  —  all  of  them  before  the 
Senate  or  people  of  Rome,  during  the  transactions  to  which 
they  relate  —  he,  the  Consul,  stating  and  defending  the  most 
public  acts  of  administration,  in  a  great  emergency.  I  see 
nothing  to  detract  from  their  decisive  weight  as  testimony, 
but  the  fact  that  he  and  Catiline  were  on  opposite  sides  of 
the  conspiracy.  This  may  constitute  a  vast  diminution  of 
title  to  credit,  and  I  must  allow  for  and  measure  it.  One 
word  on  Sallust.  For  many  reasons  his  authority  is  not 
so  high.  He  was  not  an  actor  in  the  scene.  He  could  not 
have  personal  knowledge  of  details  to  so  minute  an  extent. 
But  consider  that  he  was  about  twenty-two  years  of  age  at 
the  time  when  the  conspiracy  was  formed ;  and  that  he  must 
have  written  his  history  within  thirty  years  after  the  event 
itself,  since  he  died  at  the  age  of  fifty-one,  and  therefore 
addressed,  to  some  extent,  a  contemporary  public.  If  he  is 
not  to  be  relied  on  it  must  be  for  other  causes  than  want  of 
means  of  knowing  main  facts.  Still  the  circumstances  would 
not  assure  us  against  very  considerable  resort  to  imagination, 
and  rhetoric,  —  still  less  against  partisan  feeling  and  aim. 
Where  are  the  proofs  or  grounds  of  suspicion  of  his  untrust- 
worthiness  as  a  historian?  Take  his  sketch  of  Catiline's 
character.  Catiline  was  of  noble  birth ;  and  possessed  ex- 
traordinary power  of  mind  and  of  body  ;  but  his  moral  nature 
was  wholly  wicked,  and  his  life  habitually  vicious." 

[Here  appears  to  be  a  loss  of  some  pages.] 

"  There  is  a  pleasure  beyond  expression,  in  revising,  re- 
arranging, and  extending  my  knowledge  of  the  law.  The 
effort  to  do  so  is  imperatively  prescribed  by  the  necessities 
and  proprieties  of  my  circumstances ;  but  it  is  a  delightful 
effort.  I  record  some  of  the  uses  to  which  I  try  to  make  it 
subservient,  and  some  of  the  methods  on  which  I  conduct  it. 
My  first  business  is  obviously  to  apprehend  the  exact  point  of 


184.M844.]  CONTINUATION   OF  JOURNAL.  135 

each  new  case  which  I  study,  —  to  apprehend  and  to  enun- 
ciate it  precisely,  —  neither  too  largely,  nor  too  narrowly,  — 
accurately,  justly.  This  necessarily  and  perpetually  exercises 
and  trains  the  mind,  and  prevents  inertness,  dulness  of  edge. 
This  done,  I  arrange  the  new  truth,  or  old  truth,  or  whatever 
it  be,  in  a  system  of  legal  arrangement,  for  which  purpose  I 
abide  by  Blackstone,  to  which  I  turn  daily,  and  which  I  seek 
more  and  more  indelibly  to  impress  on  my  memory.  Then 
I  advance  to  the  question  of  the  law  of  the  new  decision,  — 
its  conformity  with  standards  of  legal  truth,  —  with  the  stat- 
ute it  interprets  ;  the  cases  on  which  it  reposes  ;  the  principles 
by  which  it  is  defended  by  the  court,  —  the  law,  —  the  ques- 
tion of  whether  the  case  is  law  or  not.  This  leads  to  a  history 
of  the  point;  a  review  of  the  adjudications ;  a  comparison  of 
the  judgment  and  argument,  with  the  criteria  of  legal  truth. 
More  thought,  —  producing  and  improved  by  more  writing, 
and  more  attention  to  last  cases  of  English  and  our  best  re- 
ports, are  wanting  still. 

''  I  seem  to  myself  to  think  it  is  within  my  competence  to 
be  master  of  the  law,  as  an  administrative  science.  But  let 
me  always  ask  at  the  end  of  an  investigation,  can  this  law  be 
reformed?  How?  why?  why  not?  Gui  hono  the  attempt? 

"  A  charm  of  the  study  of  law  is  the  sensation  of  advance, 
of  certainty,  of  '  having  apprehended,'  or  being  in  a  progres- 
sion towards  a  complete  apprehension,  of  a  distinct  depart- 
ment and  body  of  knowledge.  How  can  this  charm  be  found 
in  other  acquisitions  ?  How  can  I  hit  on  some  other  field 
or  department  of  knowledge  which  I  may  hope  to  master ; 
in  which  I  can  feel  that  I  am  making  progress ;  the  collateral 
and  contemporaneous  study  of  which  may  rest,  refresh,  and 
liberalize  me,  —  yet  not  leave  mere  transient  impressions, 
phrases,  tincture ;  but  a  body  of  digested  truths  and  an  im- 
proved understanding,  and  a  superiority  to  others  in  useful 
attainment,  giving  snatches  of  time,  minutes  and  parts  of 
hours,  to  Cicero,  Homer,  Burke,  and  Milton,  to  language 
and  literature  ?  I  think  I  see  in  the  politics  of  my  own 
country,  in  the  practical  politics  of  my  country,  a  depart- 
ment of  thought  and  study,  and  a  field  of  advancement, 
which  may  divide  my  time,  and  enhance  my  pleasure  and 
my  improvement,  with  an  efficacy  of  useful  results  equal  to 
the  law. 

'4  My  experience  in  affairs  will  give  interest  to  the  study 
of  the  thing.  It  will  assist  the  study,  as  well  as  give  it  in- 


136  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS   CHOATE.          [CHAP.  IV. 

terest.  The  newspaper  of  every  morning,  the  conversation 
of  every  day,  the  speech  of  the  caucus,  the  unavoidable  inter- 
course with  men,  may  help  it.  One  hour  of  exclusive  study 
a  day,  with  these  helps,  might  carry  one  very  far ;  so  far  at 
least,  as  to  confer  some  of  the  sensations,  and  some  of  the 
enjoyments,  attending  considerable  and  connected  acquisi- 
tions. Let  me  think  of  methods  and  aims. 

"  1.  The  first  great  title  in  this  science  is  the  Constitution  ; 
its  meaning,  its  objects,  the  powers  it  gives,  the  powers  it 
refuses,  and  the  grand  reasons  why. 

"  2.  The  second  is  the  policy  on  which  that  Constitution 
ought  to  be  administered,  the  powers  it  ought  to  put  forth, 
the  interests,  domestic  and  foreign,  to  which  it  ought  to 
attend.  This  is  practical  statesmanship,  the  statesmanship 
of  the  day.  Now,  let  us  see  how  systematic  and  scientific 
acquisitions  are  to  be  achieved  on  these  grand  subjects. 

"1.  It  is  to  be  done  by  composing  a  series  of  discourses, 
in  the  manner  of  lectures,  or  speeches,  or  arguments,  or 
essays,  as  the  mood  varied,  on  the  particulars  into  which 
these  titles  expand  themselves.  Verplanck's  letter  to  Col. 
D.,  speeches  on  the  Tariff,  might  furnish  models.  I  cannot 
anticipate  the  several  subjects  of  the  discourses  composing 
such  a  body  of  study  and  thought,  —  but  I  can  anticipate 
some  of  them.  The  history  of  the  making  of  the  Constitu- 
tion, by  which  I  now  mean  narrowly  the  history  of  the  call, 
and  acts  of  the  convention  which  made,  and  those  which 
adopted  it.  The  history  of  the  causes  which  led  to  the 
formation  of  such  a  Constitution,  —  by  which  I  mean  the 
motives  which  led  the  country  to  desire  it,  the  evils  expected 
to  be  removed,  the  good  expected  to  be  achieved ;  as  these 
are  recorded  in  contemporary  memorials,  in  es.-ays,  speeches, 
accounts  of  meetings,  debates,  and  all  the  original  discussion 
down  to,  and  through  the  adoption  of  the  government.  This 
needs  a  historian.  It  would  reward  one.  It  prepares  for  — 
almost  it  supersedes  direct  interpretation.  It  teaches  how  to 
administer  it  in  the  spirit  of  its  framers  and  age.  It  teaches 
how  to  value  it  in  the  spirit  of  its  framers  and  its  age. 

"  Thus  prepared,  you  come  to  the  instrument  itself ;  to  its 
meaning,  to  its  powers  and  their  grounds,  to  its  structure  and 
the  philosophy  and  grounds  of  that  structure.  But  without 
pursuing  this  very  general  analysis  of  a  plan,  which  will 
change  and  unfold  itself  at  every  stage  of  accomplishment, 
let  me  return  and  be  a  little  more  definite  and  more  practical. 


1843-1844.]  CONTINUATION  OF  JOURNAL.  137 

I  am  to  write  then,  first,  the  history  of  the  formation  and 
adoption  of  the  Constitution.  For  this  I  have,  or  can  com- 
jnand,  the  necessary  helps.  My  course  will  be  first  to 
glance  at  the  received  general  histories,  Marshall,  Pitkin, 
and  others,  and  then  seek,  in  original  papers  and  elsewhere, 
for  more  minute,  more  vivid,  and  less  familiar  details.  Truth, 
truth,  is  the  sole  end  and  aim.  I  shall  read  first,  with  pen  in 
hand,  for  collecting  the  matter,  and  not  begin  to  compose  till 
the  general  and  main  facts  are  entirely  familiar.  Let  me 
auspicate  the  enterprise  by  recalling  the  immortal  specula- 
tions of  Cicero  on  his  renowned  state. 

"  My  helps  I  have  supposed  tolerably  complete.  In  my 
own  library  are  Marshall,  Pitkin,  Bradford,  the  Madison 
Papers,  Story,  the  Debates  in  Conventions,  the  Federalist, 
Sparks's  Washington,  and  some  less  valuable. 

"  It  will  give  vigor,  point,  and  interest  to  what  I  shall  write, 
to  throw  it  in  the  form  of  a  contention,  an  argument,  a  reply 
to  an  unsound,  or  at  least  hostile,  reasoner,  debater,  or  histo- 
rian. But  everywhere,  under  whatever  form,  —  style,  man- 
ner, are  to  be  assiduously  cultivated  and  carefully  adapted  to 
the  subject.  Reflection,  therefore,  rhetorical  decoration,  his- 
torical allusion,  a  strong,  clear,  and  adorned  expression,  a 
style  fit  for  any  intelligent  audience,  are  in  votis.  When 
shall  I  prosecute  these  studies?  The  hour  after  dinner  seems 
best,  —  this  leaves  the  whole  morning  till  two  o'clock  for  the 
law  and  for  business,  from  half-past  eight,  or  eight  if  possible, 
—  and  an  hour,  or  half-hour  before  tea. 

"  August  24.  Odyssey,  Book  VIII.  166  to  175.  — '  One 
man  has  a  figure  and  personal  exterior,  mean,  contemptible ; 
but  God  crowns  and  wreathes  about  his  form  with  eloquence. 
Men  look  on  him  delighted ;  he  speaks  unfaltering,  but  with 
a  honeyed  modesty ;  he  is  foremost  of  the  assembly ;  as  he 
walks  through  the  city  they  look  on  him  as  on  a  god. 

"  *  Another  in  form  is  like  the  immortals,  but  he  is  un- 
adorned by  the  charm  of  graceful  speech.' 

"  Mark  the  recognition  of  the  power  of  eloquence.  It  is 
an  endowment  which  decorates,  which  crowns  an  unattractive 
person  like  a  garland.  It  is  unfaltering,  self-relying,  yet  it 
charms  by  the  sweetest  modesty.  Its  possessor  reigns  in  the 
assembly.  He  is  gazed  at  in  the  streets.  Such  praise,  such 
appreciation,  such  experience,  so  early,  predicts  and  assures 
us  a  Demosthenes  in  the  fulness  of  time. 


138  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS   CHOATE.         [CHAP.  IV. 

"  I  have  gone  through  a  week  of  unusual  labor;  not  wholly 
unsatisfactorily  to  myself.  I  deliberately  record  my  deter- 
mination to  make  no  more  political  speeches,  and  to  take  na 
more  active  part  in  the  election  or  in  practical  politics.  One 
exception  I  leave  myself  to  make.  But  I  do  not  expect  or 
mean  to  make  it.  I  have  earned  the  discharge  —  honesta 
missio  petitur  et  concessa  erit.  To  my  profession,  totis  viri- 
bus,  I  am  now  dedicated.  To  my  profession  of  the  law  and 
of  advocacy,  with  as  large  and  fair  an  accompaniment  of 
manly  and  graceful  studies  as  I  can  command. 

"  In  reference  to  my  studies  of  eloquence,  I  would  do  some- 
thing to  collect  and  arrange  general  observations  —  maxims, 
proverbs  —  sententice^  yvw^iai  —  for  use.  They  fix  attention. 
They  are  argument,  authority,  illustration,  the  signs  of  full 
minds.  Burke,  Johnson,  Burton's  Anatomy  —  any  great 
author  —  any  author  supplies.  The  difficulty  is  of  arrange- 
ment, so  that  in  the  composition  of  an  argument  they  would 
be  at  hand.  I  see  no  way  but  to  digest  them  in  my  Index 
Rerurn —  selecting  the  letter  as  best  I  may  —  but  it  must  be 
my  business  also  to  connect  them  in  my  memory  with  the 
truths  they  belong  to,  and  with  the  occasions  of  possible  ex- 
hibition and  use  —  and  to  review  the  collection  from  time  to 
time,  and  especially  on  the  preparation  of  a  discourse. 

"  29tk  September.  —  A  little  attention  to  things,  and  per- 
sons, arid  reputations  about  me  teaches  that  uncommon  pro- 
fessional exertions  are  necessary  to  recover  business  to  live, 
and  a  trial  or  two  teaches  me  that  I  can  very  zealously,  and 
very  thoroughly,  and  con  amore,  study  and  discuss  any  case. 
How  well  I  can  do  so,  compared  with  others,  I  shall  not  ex- 
press an  opinion  on  paper  —  but  if  I  live,  all  blockheads 
which  are  shaken  at  certain  mental  peculiarities  shall  know 
and  feel  a  reasoner,  a  lawyer,  and  a  man  of  business.  In  all 
this  energy  and  passion  I  mean  to  say  no  more  than  that  the 
utmost  possible  painstaking  with  every  case  is  perfectly  indis- 
pensable, and  fortunately  not  at  all  irksome.  The  case  in 
hand  demands,  invites  to  a  most  exact,  prepared,  and  deep 
legal  and  rhetorical  discourse. 

"  For  the  rest  I  grow  into  knowledge  of  Homer,  and  Taci- 
tus and  Juvenal  —  and  of  the  Rome  of  the  age  from  Augus- 
tus to  Trajan.  A  busy  professional  week  has  suspended 
Cicero  somewhat,  and  has  as  usual  made  the  snatches  of  my 
unprofessional  readings  a  little  desultory,  —  which  is  more 
and  more  besetting ;  more  and  more  deleterious. 


1843-1844.]  CONTINUATION  OF  JOURNAL.  139 

"  I  wish,  as  I  have  long  wished,  that  I  could  acquire  a 
genuine  and  fervent  love  of  historical  reading,  —  I  mean  the 
reading  of  what  I  may  call  authentic  and  useful  history ;  and 
by  that  I  mean  the  series  of  facts  of  which  the  present  is  the 
traceable  result.  The  classical  historians  I  do  love.  I  read 
Tacitus  daily.  But  this  is  for  their  language ;  for  their  pic- 
tures; for  the  poetical  incident;  the  rhetorical  expression; 
the  artistical  perfectness,  and  beauty.  We  cannot  know  that 
any  thing  more  is  true  than  the  most  general  course  of  larger 
events.  The  moment  you  go  beyond  that,  you  are  among 
the  imaginative  writers.  You  are  dealing  with  truths ;  mo- 
ralities ;  instructions ;  but  you  do  not  know  that  you  are  or 
are  not  dealing  with  actual  occurrences. 

"  The  history  I  would  read  is  modern.  I  should  go  no 
farther  back  than  Gibbon ;  should  recall  the  general  life, 
thoughts,  action,  of  the  Middle  Age  in  him,  and  Hallam's 
two  great  works ;  and  begin  to  study,  to  write,  to  deduce,  to 
lay  up,  in  the  standard,  particular  histories  of  the  great 
countries. 

"  Under  this  impulse  I  have  decided  to  start  from  the  revo- 
lution of  1688;  first  with  the  English  writers;  and  then  with 
Voltaire.  The  revolution ;  and  the  reign  of  William  and 
Mary,  and  William  the  Third  are  my  first  study.  For  this 
the  means  are  perhaps  sufficiently  ample.  My  plan  is  simple. 
I  examine  first  the  foreign  politics  of  England  —  her  relations 
to  Europe ;  the  objects  of  her  wars ;  the  objects  of  her  trea- 
ties ;  and  the  results.  I  have  thus  surveyed  the  general 
course  of  what  we  loosely  call  the  history  of  the  time.  Then 
I  turn  to  the  Constitutional  history.  By  this  I  mean  the 
history  of  the  changes  of  the  Constitution  ;  the  politics  of  the 
Crown ;  the  politics  of  parties ;  the  politics  of  prominent 
men ;  the  politics  of  Parliament ;  the  laws  made ;  the  pro- 
gress and  expression  of  public  opinion  as  that  opinion  relates 
to  Government,  and  to  civil  and  political  right  and  duty.  I 
mean  by  it  the  history  of  so  many  years  of  English  liberty. 
The  industrial  history ;  the  popular  history ;  the  history  of 
the  condition  of  the  people ;  their  occupations ;  their  enjoy- 
ments ;  their  nature ;  the  history  of  literature,  art,  and  sci- 
ence ;  and  the  study  of  the  master-pieces  of  liberal  culture 
and  high  art  follow. 

"  I  wish  then  to  compress  into  a  few  condensed  and  com- 
prehensive paragraphs  the  result  of  hours  and  of  days'  study, 
under  each  of  these  heads.  Notes  on  these  summaries  may 


140  MEMOIR  OF  RLTUS  CHOATE.         [CHAP.  IV. 

indicate  and  discuss  the  materials  out  of  which  this  is  all 
elaborated. 

"  Let  me  begin,  then,  with  such  a  succinct  display  of  the 
foreign  politics  of  England  iu  the  reign  of  William. 

"  The  one  grand  feature  of  English  foreign  policy  during 
this  reign,  was  antagonism  to  France  —  to  the  France  of 
Louis  the  Fourteenth.  Its  one  grand  and  constant  solicitude 
and  effort  was  to  repel,  or  to  attack,  France ;  —  its  alliances, 
its  battles,  its  whole  series  of  operations  from  1688,  till  the 
King  sunk  into  the  tomb,  pursued  this  single  object. 

"  There  is  a  simplicity  in  the  foreign  politics  of  this  reign 
in  this  respect.  And  when  you  ascend,  or  penetrate  to  the 
origin  and  explanation  of  this  policy ;  when  you  inquire  how 
arid  why  this  antagonism  to  France  became  its  law ;  on  what 
principles  and  with  what  views  so  wide  a  confederacy  became 
associated  with  England  in  its  prosecution ;  when,  in  other 
words,  you  look  more  closely  into  the  entire  international 
politics  of  the  Europe  of  that  day,  you  find  all  as  simple,  and 
all  as  intelligible.  In  the  first  place,  the  foreign  policy  of 
England  became  identified  with  that  of  the  United  Provinces ; 
and  Holland  was  under  an  unintermitted  necessity  to  fight,  or 
to  observe  France.  Turn  first  to  Holland." 


1844-1845.]  POLITICAL   EXCITEMENT.  141 


CHAPTER  V. 

1844-1845. 

Political  Excitement — Speaks  for  Mr.  Clay  —  Meeting  of  Congress 

—  Diary — Annexation  of  Texas — Admission  of  Iowa  and  Florida 

—  Establishment  of  the  Smithsonian  Institution  —  Library  Plan  — 
Letters  to  Hon.  C.  W.  Upham — Illness  of  Dr.  Sewall  —  Letter  to 
Mrs.  Brinley. 

IN  the  political  contest  of  1844,  the  annexation  of 
Texas  was  the  leading  issue.  Mr.  Van  Buren  failed 
of  a  nomination  in  the  Democratic  Convention, 
mainly  because  he  was  unfavorable  to  that  measure, 
and  Mr.  Polk  was  substituted  in  his  place.  Mr.  Clay 
was  the  candidate  of  the  Whigs.  Mr.  Choate  entered 
ardently  into  the  campaign,  supporting  Mr.  Clay 
with  all  his  ability.  He  spoke  on  the  4th  of  July, 
at  Concord,  where  speeches  were  also  made  by  Mr. 
Berrien,  of  Georgia,  Mr.  Webster,  Mr.  Wirithrop, 
Mr.  Lawrence,  and  others.  He  addressed  a  Whig 
Convention  of  Western  Massachusetts  at  Springfield, 
on  the  9th  of  August.  He  spoke  before  the  Young 
Men  of  Boston  on  the  19th  of  the  same  month,  and 
again  before  a  Mass  Meeting  at  Lynn,  early  in  Sep- 
tember. He  was  opposed  to  the  admission  of  Texas, 
not  on  narrow  or  sectional  grounds,  but  from  fear  of 
the  final  result  to  the  Union  itself.  In  the  speech  at 
Lynn,  prescient  of  coming  danger,  he  said,  "  If  Texas 
is  annexed  to  the  United  States,  these  revolutionary 


142  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS  CHOATE.  [CHAP.  V. 

soldiers  who  rocked  the  cradle  of  the  infancy  of  the 
Union,  will  live  to  follow  its  hearse  to  the  grave." 
We  are  better  able  now  to  judge  of  the  effect  of  that 
sudden  and  immense  increase  of  territory,  and  of  the 
purposes  for  which  it  was  urged. 

A  continuation  of  the  fragmentary  "  Journal "  will 
best  show  the  intellectual  plans  of  the  year,  and  may 
indicate  what  he  accomplished  in  the  midst  of,  and  in 
spite  of  the  incessant  demands  of  politics,  and  of  his 
profession. 

"Boston,  Dec.  9, 1844.  —  About  to  set  off  to  Washington, 
there  to  close  in  two  months,  for  ever,  my  political  life,  and 
to  begin  my  return  to  my  profession,  I  am  moved  with  a 
passion  for  planning  a  little  —  what,  in  all  probability,  will 
not  be  performed  —  or  not  performed  without  pretty  essential 
variations  and  interruptions. 

"  1.  Some  professional  work  must  be  done  every  day. 
Probably  the  preparation  of  Rhode  Island  v.  Massachusetts, 
and  of  Thurlow  in  Error,  may  furnish  quite  enough  for  these. 
But  recent  experiences  suggest  that  I  ought  to  be  more  familiar 
with  evidence  and  Cowen's  Fhillipps ;  therefore,  daily,  for  half 
an  hour,  I  will  thumb  conscientiously.  When  I  'come  home 
again,  in  the  intervals  of  actual  employment,  my  recent  methods 
of  reading,  accompanying  the  reports  with  the  composition  of 
arguments  upon  the  points  adjudged,  may  be  properly  resumed. 

"  2.  In  my  Greek,  Latin,  and  French  readings  —  Odyssey, 
Thucydides,  Tacitus,  Juvenal,  and  some  French  orator  or 
critic — I  need  make  no  change.  So,  too,  Milton,  Johnson, 
Burke  —  semper  in  mnnu  —  ut  mos  est.  To  my  Greek  I 
ought  to  add  a  page  a  day  of  Crosby's  Grammar,  and  the 
practice  of  parsing  every  word  in  my  few  lines  of  Homer. 
On  Sunday,  the  Greek  Testament,  and  Septuagint,  and 
French.  This  and  the  oration  for  the  Crown,  which  I  will 
completely  master,  translate,  annotate,  and  commit,  will  be 
enough  in  this  kind.  If  not,  I  will  add  a  translation  of  a 
sentence  or  two  from  Tacitus. 

"  3.  The  business  of  the  session  ought  to  engross,  and 
phall,  my  chief  attention.  The  Smithsonian  Fund  ought  to 
be  applied  to  a  great  library ;  and  a  report  and  a  speech  in 


1844-1845.]  FRAGMENTARY  JOURNAL.  143 

favor  of  such  an  appropriation  are  the  least  I  owe  so  grand 
and  judicious  a  destination  of  a  noble  gift.  An  edition  of  the 
laws,  on  the  plan  of  the  last  winter,  is  'only  next  in  dignity 
and  importance.  For  the  rest  —  the  reduction  of  postage, 
the  matter  of  Texas,  the  tariff — will  be  quite  likely,  with 
the  Supreme  Court,  to  prevent  time  from  hanging  vacantly 
on  my  hands.  Sit  mihi  diligentia,  sint  vires  —  sit  denique 
et  prcecipue  gratia! 

"  And  now  for  details  of  execution. 

"I.  Walk  an  hour  before  breakfast;  morning  paper; 
Johnson  and  Milton  before  breakfast.  Add,  if  possible,  with 
notes,  an  Ess£y  of  Bacon  also,  or  a  paper  of  the  Spectator,  or 
a  page  of  some  other  paper  of  Addison. 

"II.  After — 1.  The  regular  preparation  for  the  Senate, 
be  it  more  or  less.  Let  this  displace,  indeed,  all  else,  before 
or  after.  2.  If  that  allows  —  (a.)  Preparation  of  cases  for 
courts,  (b.)  If  that  allows  —  1.  Page  in  Cowen's  Phillipps. 
2.  Then  preparation  for  courts.  3.  Then  Senate,  &c. 

"III.    Letters  and  session. 

"  IV.  Then  —  subject  to  claims  of  debate  and  of  Court, — 
Greek,  Latin,  French,  ut  supra,  Burke,  Taylor. 

"  V.  The  cases  to  be  prepared  by  —  say  20th  January  ; 
debate  oftener  than  formerly  ;  less  preparation  is  really 
needful,  yet  seek  one  great  occasion. 

"  THE  LAST  SESSION. 

"  15th  December,  1844.  —  Under  this  title  I  mean  to  set 
down  any  thing  which  I  may  collect  from  reading  and 
intercourse  with  men  in  Congress  and  the  Government,  that 
strikes  me  as  having  value  or  interest  enough  to  deserve  the 
trouble.  I  don't  design  it  for  a  diary  ;  or  mere  record,  or  in 
any  degree  a  record,  of  daily  occurrences,  for  that  I  keep 
elsewhere,  but  rather  as  a  record  of  daily  thoughts  and 
acquisitions  and  impressions,  during  what  I  foresee  must  be 
a  most  instructive  session,  and  what  I  know  is  to  be  my  last 
session. 

"  1  begin  a  great  work.  Thucydides,  in  Bloomfield's  new 
edition,  with  the  intention  of  understanding  a  difficult,  and 
learning  something  from  an  instructive,  writer,  —  something 
for  the  more  and  more  complicated,  interior,  inter  state, 
American  politics. 

"  With  Thucydides  I  shall  read  Wachsmuth,  with  historical 


144  MEMOIR   OF  RUFUS   CHOATE.  [CHAP.  V. 

references  and  verifications.  Schomann  on  the  Assemblies  of 
the  Athenians.  W.  especially,  I  am  to  meditate  and  master. 
Dacier's  Horace,  Ode  1,  llth  to  14th  line,  translation  and 
notes,  —  a  pocket  edition  to  be  always  in  pocket. 

"Washington,  Tuesday  eve,  17th  December.  —  I  was  able 
to-day  almost  to  resume  my  courses,  such  as  they  are,  of 
classical  and  elegant  reading  —  Johnson's  Life  of  Addison ; 
the  Odyssey,  Thucydides,  Tacitus,  Juvenal,  Horace's  Art 
of  Poetry  in  Dacier  and  Kurd.  It  was  quite  mechanical, 
however,  from  ill  health  and  fatigue.  I  begin  to-morrow 
melioribus,  ut  spero,  ampiciis.  I  read  Phillipps's  Evidence, 
beginning  at  title  '  Incompetency,'  and  commonplaced  a 
reference  or  two. 

"  Thursday  eve.  —  Mark  how  Homer  makes  the  wise  and 
great  Ulysses  applaud  the  blind  harper  and  poet  and  singer 
Demedocus,  Od.  8,  470  to  480,  and  again,  487,  &c.  Seq. 

"  '  Demodocus,  above  all  mortals,  1  laud  you.  Either  the 
Muse,  the  daughter  of  God,  or  Apollo,  has  been  your  teacher. 
So  clearly  and  so  truly  do  you  sing  the  dark  and  sad  fortunes 
of  the  Greeks ;  what  they  achieved  ;  what  they  suffered  ; 
with  what  manifold  trials  and  labors  they  contended,  as  if 
you  had  been  with  them,  an  eye-witness,  a  sharer,  or  had 
heard  from  one  who  had  been.' 


"  Thucydides  is  explaining  why  the  primitive  ages  of 
Greece  afford  the  historian  nothing  great,  neither  in  war, 
nor  in  any  thing  else.  In  my  reading  of  to-day,  close  of  2d 
and  3d  of  c.  2,  he  is  saying :  '  And  for  this  reason,  they  did 
not  strengthen  themselves,  either  by  the  greatness  of  cities  or 
by  military  preparation  of  any  kind.  It  was  ever  the  most 
fertile  regions  which  oftenest  underwent  changes  of  occu- 
pants ;  such  as  what  is  now  called  Thessaly  and  Bceotia,  and 
the  greater  part  of  Peloponnesus  (excepting  Arcadia),  and 
the  better  portions  of  other  countries  of  Greece.  For  by 
means  of  the  richness  of  their  soils  certain  individuals  would 
attain  to  a  superiority  of  wealth ;  and  this  at  once  gave  birth 
to  factions  within,  by  which  they  were  subverted,  and  exposed 
them  to  enemies  from  without.' 

"  Tacitus,  Lib.  II.,  sec.  30,  relates  the  accusation  and  trial 
of  Libo  :  '  This  compelled  the  accused  to  ask  a  postponement 
of  the  trial  until  the  next  day ;  and  returning  to  his  house, 
he  committed  to  P.  Quirinus,  his  kinsman,  the  last  entreaties, 


1844-1845.]  FRAGMENTARY  JOURNAL.  145 

to  be  borne  to  the  Emperor.'  '  Let  him  ask  mercy  of  the 
Senate.'  Such  was  the  reply  of  Tiberius. 

"Saturday  night,  28th  December,  18'44.  —  My  readings 
have  been  pretty  regular  and  almost  systematic.  Phillipps's 
Evidence,  with  notes,  Johnson,  The  Tatler,  The  Whig 
Examiner,  and  Milton,  in  the  morning,  —  some  thoughts  on 
the  Smithsonian  Fund,  and  one  or  two  other  Senatorial 
matters  in  the  forenoon,  and  the  Odyssey,  Thucydides  in 
Bloomfield,  Hobbes,  and  Arnold,  Demosthenes  for  the  Crown, 
Tacitus.  Juvenal,  and  Horace  de  Arte  Poet.,  with  Dacier  and 
Hurd.  For  the  rest  I  have  read  Jeffrey's  contributions  to 
the  Review,  and  have  plunged  into  a  pretty  wide  and  most 
unsatisfactory  course  of  inquiry  concerning  the  Pelasgi,  and 
the  origin  of  Greek  culture,  and  the  Greek  mind.  Upon 
this  subject  let  me  set  down  a  few  thoughts. 

"  28th  December,  1844.  —  The  nation  which  attracts  the 
highest  interest  to  its  history  is  undoubtedly  Ancient  Greece. 
Perfectly  to  know  that  history,  to  discern  and  arrange  its 
authentic  incidents,  to  extract  and  exclude  fable,  to  abate 
exaggeration,  to  select  sagaciously  and  probably  between 
alternatives  of  conjecture ;  to  solve  the  great  problem  of 
the  origin,  successive  growth,  and  complete  formation  of  that 
mind  and  character,  the  causes  which  produced  it  and  set  it 
apart  from  all  other  character  and  mind ;  to  deduce  and  apply 
the  lessons  of  that  history  to  America,  —  would  be  a  vast 
achievement  of  scholarship  and  philosophy  and  statesmanship. 
To  me,  coffitante  scepenumero  on  what  one  such  labor  I  may 
concentrate  moments  and  efforts  else  sure  to  be  dissipated 
and  unproductive,  this  seems  to  be  obviously  my  reserved 
task.  It  is  large  enough,  and  various  enough  to  employ  all 
my  leisure,  stimulate  all  my  faculties,  cultivate  all  my  powers 
and  tastes,  and  it  is  seasonable  and  applicable  in  the  actual 
condition  of  these  States.  He  who  should  perform  it  ade- 
quately would  be  not  merely  the  best  Greek  scholar  of  this 
country ;  the  best  read  in  one  brilliant  chapter  of  the  history 
of  man ;  the  most  accomplished  in  one  vast  department  of 
literature,  art,  philosophy,  fact ;  but  he  would  have  added 
to  his  means  of  counselling  the  people  on  the  things  of  their 
peace.  He  would  have  learned  more  of  the  uses  and  dangers 
of  liberty,  and  the  uses  and  dangers  of  union.  Let  me  slowly, 
quietly  begin.  I  seek  political  lessons  for  my  country.  But 
1  am  to  traverse  centuries  before  I  find  these  lessons  in  the 
pages  of  Thucydides.  To  approach  to  the  accomplishment 

10 


146  MEMOIR   OF   RUFUS   CHOATE.          [CHAP.  V. 

of  this  design,  it  must  be  my  only  literary  labor,  —  my  only 
labor  not  professional.  It  may  well,  and  it  positively  must, 
supersede  all  others.  The  investigations  it  will  exact ;  the 
collections  of  authorities ;  the  constant  use  of  the  pen ;  the 
translations,  the  speculations,  ought  to  constitute  an  admirable 
exercise  in  reasoning ;  in  taste  ;  in  rhetoric  as  well  as  history. 
They  may  be  embodied  in  a  series  of  careful  essays. 

"  I  dismiss  therefore,  and  replace  in  the  library,  all  my 
books,  except  the  two  or  three  which  I  read  for  English  and 
Latin,  —  and  bestow  myself  on  this. 

"  The  Homeric  poems  present  to  us  a  Greece  already, 
formed ;  a  race  speaking  one  tongue,  distinct  from  the 
tongues  of  Egypt  or  Phoanicia,  distributed  into  many  distinct 
sovereignties ;  some  of  which,  or  all  of  which  are  allied  for  the 
prosecution  of  a  great  foreign  war,  under  a  single  command. 
They  disclose  this  race  already  in  the  occupation  of . 

[Here  a  blank  occurs  in  the  MS.] 

and  they  paint  vividly,  comprehensively,  its  whole  public  and 
private  life  ;  its  religion  ;  its  industry  ;  its  arts  ;  its  language ; 
its  mind ;  its  manners.  That  Greece  I  shall,  long  hereafter, 
carefully  study  and  exhibit.  But  not  yet.  There  is  a  stu- 
pendous preliminary  problem.  What  had  preceded  and  pro- 
duced that  Greece  ?  What  causes  had  acted  on  what  races 
so  as  to  evolve  the  Greece  of  the  heroic  age  ?  who  had  been 
the  actors ;  what  had  been  the  acts.  —  what  had  been  the 
influences ;  what  the  succession  of  changes,  and  of  advance- 
ment? 

"  The  Greek  character  and  mind  in  its  perfection  was  so 
extraordinary,  so  unlike  all  that  had  preceded  or  have  followed 
it,  that  it  is  not  very  strange  perhaps  that  speculatists  should 
look  with  favor  on  the  theory  of  a  descent  from  a  primitive 
race  or  races,  of  extraordinary  qualities.  They  have  scarcely 
been  able  to  comprehend  how  any  mere  national  education, 
however  varied,  however  plastic,  of  which  we  can  learn  any 
thing,  could  have  formed  such  a  character  and  such  a  mind 
out  of  common  savage  nature  ;  and  they  have  been  half 
inclined  to  find  in  the  Pelasgi  of  the  Old  World,  or  in  the 
Hellenes,  or  in  a  race  from  the  North,  or  in  all  together,  the 
germs  of  the  transcendent  genius,  and  the  brilliant  traits 
which  illustrate  the  age  of  Grecian  glory. 

"  Let  me  begin  then  with  the  Ante  Hellenic  races  and  ages 
of  Greece.  Who  —  whence  —  what  —  and  of  what  names, 
fortunes,  diffusion,  its  first  inhabitants  ? 


1844-1845.]  FRAGMENTARY  JOURNAL.  147 


"THE  LAST  SESSION,  —  A  DAT. 

"January,  1845.  —  Finished  Johnson's  Life  of  Sheffield. 
J.  carelessly  assigns  as  evidence  that  S.  refused  conversion  to 
papacy,  an  anecdote  which  he  immediately  disproves.  If  the 
sentence  had  been  finished  with  '  others ; '  and  he  had  then 
said,  B.  even  records,  &c.,  &c.,  and  then  disproved  B.'s  spe- 
cific statement,  better. 

"  The  progress  of  Milton's  fame,  illustrated  by  the  changes 
of  the  later  editions  of  one  of  his  [Sheffield's]  pieces  from 
,  the  earlier,  is  curious. 

'  A  faultless  monster,  which  the  world  ne'er  saw  ' 

is  good  and  quotable.  Sine  lobe  monstrum  [of  Scaliger]  is 
the  germ  certainly. 

"  I  remark  '  illegality,'  and  '  conjunctive  sovereignty.'  How 
does  Hallam  express  it  ?  Is  it  associated  sovereignty  ? 

"  Milton's  '  Paradise  Lost,'  1st  book,  344-375.  Mark  the 
matchless  grandeur  and  elevation  of  expression.  ''Cope  of 
Hell,'  '  Great  Sultan?  not  sovereign ;  how  much  more  har- 
monious, aiming  at  variety,  uncommon,  with  a  charm  of  ori- 
entalism. '  Rhene,'  '  Danaw,'  '  Beneath  Gibraltar,'  an  epithet 
which  makes  you  look  down  south. 

'  Gay  religions,  —  full  of  pomp  and  gold.' 

classical  and  gorgeous. 

"  Paper  in  Ret.  Rev.1  vol.  i.  p.  83,  on  Sir  Thomas  Browne's 
'  Urn  Burial,'  —  great  beauty  and  an  exquisite  appreciation 
of  the  peculiarities  of  B.  The  first  page,  devoted  to  show 
what  use  other,  most  writers  have  made  of  death  and  mor- 
tality, has  delightful  expression  and  fine  thoughts,  not  enough 
separated  and  arranged  and  made  progressive.  '  Fragility ' 
of  delight  is  not  a  bewitching  attribute  of  delight.  It  is  an 
influence,  however,  a  fact,  or  that  which  leads  to  a  more  in- 
tense estimate  and  greedier  and  fonder  enjoying  of,  and  a 
making  most  of  it. 

"  What  follows  is  truer,  or  more  truly  sets  forth  what 
philosophy  and  poetry  may  and  do  effectively  derive  from 
mortality  to  their  representations  of  affection ;  sympathy,  the 
human  nature. 

"  In  addition  to  my  course,  and  a  rule  of  Greek  grammar, 

1  "  Retrospective  Review." 


148  MEMOIR   OF  RUFUS   CHOATE.  [CHAP.  V. 

I  read  a  part  of  1  st  Psalm  in  Buchanan's  Latin  and  Dupont's 
Greek ;  the  latter  verbose  and  tautologous,  the  former,  I 
should  think,  rigorously  classical  and  energetic.  Finished 
with  some  pages  of  Jeremy  Taylor,  on  life  and  death.  In- 
tense, exaggerated,  mournful,  too  true.  I  will  daily  read  in 
the  English  version  at  least  six  verses  of  the  New  Testament 
with  an  earnest  effort  to  understand,  imbibe,  and  live  them. 
Satis,  plusquam  satis,  sic  vixisse,  —  sic  non  vixisse,  —  nee 
pulchre,  —  nee  recte,  — sine  dignitate, —  sine  me  ipsum  salvum 
faciend. !  sine  reg.  —  sine  observ.  —  Dei  praecept.  —  sine  in- 
tellig.  —  et  app.  —  ad  me  instit.  —  et  ritus  rel.  Christ  —  vit. 
ist.  tuae  felic.  non  debetur,  nee  promissa,  nee  poss. !  Ideo  ut 
supra  in  vers.  ang.  una  cum  fin.  diei  stud.  Sex  vers.  leg.  et 
med.  et  orare ! 

"  The  session  ended.     Boston,  March  10,  1845. 

"  To  resume  my  ante-Homeric  Greece,  I  have  but  to  pro- 
cure a  Niebuhr  and  Miiller  in  addition  to  books  already  at 
hand,  to  review  the  collections  accumulated  at  Washington, 
and  begin.  But  all  this  is  to  be  held  in  strictest  subordina- 
tion to  law  and  to  business.  It  is  to  be  relaxation  and  recre- 
ation strictly,  yet  is  it  to  improve  style,  reason,  taste,  and 
habits  of  research. 

"  30th  M.  '45. —  A  succession  of  trials  in  different  courts 
has  thrown  me  out  of  many  merely  literary  and  exercita- 
tional  purposes  and  duties.  These  I  resume,  and  every  day 
—  not  a  day  of  trial  in  court  —  I  shall  investigate  some  sub- 
ject of  law,  three  hours  at  least,  digesting  the  results. 

"  Translation  daily  is  manifestly  my  only  means  of  keep- 
ing up  my  English.  This  I  practise  in  my  post-prandial 
readings,  but  I  fear  it  is  not  quite  exacting,  laborious,  and 
stimulant  enough.  I  have  a  pretty  strong  impression  that 
the  only  sufficient  task  would  be  Demosthenes  severely,  ex- 
actly rendered,  yet  with  utmost  striving  of  words,  style, 
melody,  volume  of  sound,  and  impression.  I  should  begin 
with  the  oration  for  the  Crown.  When?  By  putting  my 
post-prandial  classical  readings  before  breakfast,  following 
my  English,  I  could  gain  an  hour,  or  half  of  one,  after  dinner, 
and  half  an  hour  after  breakfast  at  home.  This  will  do,  leav- 
ing my  forenoons,  afternoons,  and  one  evening  hour,  for  busi- 
ness and  law.  Try. 

"12th  April.  —  I  have  tried,  and  with  tolerable  success. 
I  have  translated  the  Decree  of  Ctesiphon ;  the  impeachment 


1844-1845.]  ANNEXATION  OF   TEXAS.  149 

of  jEschines ;  and  am  now  about  to  digest  so  much  of  the 
History  of  Greece  as  will  enable  me  to  understand  the  two 
great  speeches.  This  really  will  require  a  pretty  careful 
study  of  the  age  and  life  of  Demosthenes  in  Plutarch,  Mit- 
ford,  Thirlwall,  and  such  other  helps  as  I  can  command. 
Contemporary  authors  there  are  none  since  Theopompus  is 
perished ;  and  I  appreciate  the  difficulty  of  the  search  for 
truth.  Happy  if  I  find  enough  for  my  mere  critical  and 
rhetorical  purposes." 

The  purpose  suggested  above,  on  devoting  himself 
to  a  work  on  the  history  and  culture  of  Greece,  was 
one  which  he  doubtless  pretty  seriously  entertained. 
He  used,  sometimes,  to  speak  to  his  family,  half  jo- 
cosely and  half  in  earnest,  of  his  "  immortal  work," 
and  I  think  he  did  not  quite  abandon  the  plan  until 
after  Mr.  Grote's  history  was  published. 

The  subjects  which  presented  themselves  for  the 
consideration  of  Congress  during  the  session  of 
1844-45  were  of  considerable  consequence.  Fore- 
most among  them  was  the  annexation  of  Texas. 
During  the  previous  session,  in  accordance  with  the 
wishes  of  the  President,  an  attempt  had  been  made 
to  accomplish  this  object  by  treaty.  A  treaty  was 
therefore  negotiated  by  Mr.  Calhoun,  Secretary  of 
State,  and  Mr.  Van  Zandt,  representative  of  Texas. 
When  presented  to  the  Senate,  however,  it  was  re- 
jected by  a  very  decisive  vote.  An  attempt  was  now 
made  to  reach  the  same  end  by  resolutions,  which 
were  introduced  in  the  Senate  by  Mr.  M'Duffie,  and 
in  the  House  by  Mr.  Ingersoll.  The  subject  was  not 
fairly  reached  in  the  Senate  until  the  13th  of  Febru- 
ary, 1845,  and  after  the  resolutions  had  passed  the 
House.  The  debate  was  conducted  with  great  abil- 
ity, and  by  the  leading  men  on  both  sides  of  the 
chamber,  by  Mr.  Buchanan,  Mr.  Walker,  Mr.  Wood- 


150  MEMOIK  OF  RUFUS  CHOATE.  [CHAP.  V. 

bury,  and  others,  on  the  one  side,  and  by  Mr.  Choate, 
Mr.  Dayton,  Mr.  Crittenden,  and  Mr.  Berrien,  to 
name  no  more,  on  the  other.  The  interest  in  the 
discussion  was  heightened  by  the  fact  that  the  Senate 
was  nearly  equally  divided  on  the  subject.  Mr. 
Choate  spoke  on  the  18th  of  February  for  nearly 
three  hours.  There  is  no  full  report  of  this  speech, 
which  is  said  to  have  been  of  very  great  power. 

The  grounds  on  which  he  opposed  the  measure 
were  mainly  these  two :  1st,  That  it  was  beyond  the 
constitutional  power  of  Congress ;  2d,  That  even  if 
constitutional,  it  was  inexpedient.  These  points  he 
argued  at  considerable  length,  enforcing  his  argu- 
ment, as  the  report  says,  with  "  innumerable  illustra- 
tions." Looking  at  the  period  before  the  Constitution 
was  formed,  he  contended  that  "  in  framing  the  Con- 
stitution, when  the  sovereign  power  of  the  people  was 
to  be  delegated,  the  grant  was  intended  to  be  in  ex- 
press terms,  such  as  the  power  to  declare  war,  make 
peace,  regulate  commerce  with  foreign  nations,  levy 
taxes,  &c.  But  no  such  power  as  that  of  admitting 
foreign  nations  into  the  Union  was  delegated,  or  it 
would  have  been  also  explicitly  granted."  Looking 
at  the  Constitution  itself,  he  endeavored  to  show  that 
the  power  to  admit  new  States  was  not  intended  to 
imply  the  vast  power  of  admitting  foreign  govern- 
ments. This  he  denied  could  be  done  by  any  power 
but  the  primary,  sovereign  power  of  the  people  them- 
selves, either  by  agreement  to  amend  the  Constitution 
so  as  to  grant  the  express  authority,  or  otherwise. 
"  Until  it  was  found,"  he  said,  "that  the  treaty  of  the 
last  session  had  no  chance  of  passing  the  Senate,  no 
human  being  save  one,  no  man,  woman,  or  child,  in 


1844-1845.]      SPEECH  AGAINST  ANNEXING  TEXAS.         151 

this  Union  or  out  of  this  Union,  was  ever  heard  to 
breathe  one  syllable  about  this  power  in  the  Consti- 
tution of  admitting  new  States  being  applicable  to 
the  admission  of  foreign  nations,  governments,  or 
States.  With  one  exception,  till  ten  months  ago,  no 
such  doctrine  was  ever  heard,  or  even  entertained." 
The  exception  to  which  he  alluded  was  the  letter  of 
Mr.  Macon  to  Mr.  Jefferson,  which  Mr.  Jefferson  so 
promptly  rebuked,  that  the  insinuation  was  never 
again  repeated,  "till  it  was  found  necessary  ten 
months  ago  by  some  one,  —  he  would  not  say  with 
Texas  scrip  in  his  pocket, — but  certainly  with  Texas 
annexation  very  much  at  heart,  who  brought  it  for- 
ward into  new  life,  and  urged  it  as  the  only  proper 
mode  of  exercising  an  express  grant  of  the  Constitu- 
tion." This  he  regarded  as  a  new  and  monstrous 
heresy  on  the  Constitution,  got  up  not  from  any  well- 
founded  faith  in  its  orthodoxy,  but  for  the  mere  pur- 
pose of  carrying  a  measure  by  a  bare  majority  of 
Congress,  that  could  not  be  carried  by  a  two-thirds 
majority  of  the  Senate  in  accordance  with  the  treaty- 
making  power. 

In  conclusion,  alluding  to  some  criticism  upon  his 
own  State,  he  said  "Massachusetts  asks  nothing  but 
what  the  Constitution  has  given  to  her,  and  there  is 
nothing  in  the  Constitution,  however  peculiar,  how- 
ever different  from  her  views  of  policy,  that  she  will 
seek  to  stir,  or  ask  to  be  invaded.  Keep  the  Consti- 
tution and  the  Constitution  will  keep  you.  Break 
into  it  in  search  of  secret  curiosities  which  you  cannot 
find  there,  and  there  is  no  longer  security,  —  no  longer 
any  thing  between  you  and  us  and  the  unappeasable, 
unchained  spirit  of  the  age." 


152  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS  CHOATE.  [CHAP.  V. 

The  resolution,  or  rather  an  amendment  "  leaving 
it  at  the  discretion  of  the  President,  whether  resort 
should  be  had  to  negotiation,  or  Texas  '  be  admitted  by 
virtue  of  this  act,'  and  become  an  independent  State," 
was  finally  passed  by  a  majority  of  two,  and  having 
again  gone  through  the  House,  President  Tyler  signed 
the  bill,  among  the  last  of  his  official  acts. 

A  bill  was  also  introduced  at  this  session  to  admit 
Iowa  and  Florida  into  the  Union.  Though  not  op- 
posed to  the  admission  of  new  States,  Mr.  Choate 
strongly  objected  to  the  extraordinary  method  of  a 
joint  bill,  making  the  admission  of  the  one  dependent 
upon  that  of  the  other.  Some  things  in  the  constitu- 
tion of  Florida  he  considered  to  be  ill-advised  if  not 
unconstitutional.  When,  therefore,  Mr.  Evans  pro- 
posed as  an  amendment  that  Florida  should  not  be 
admitted  until  those  articles  should  be  struck  from  her 
constitution  which  took  from  her  General  Assembly 
the  power  to  pass  laws  for  the  emancipation  of  slaves, 
and  to  pass  laws  preventing  free  negroes  or  other 
persons  of  color  from  immigrating  to  the  State,  or 
from  being  discharged  from  any  vessel  in  any  of  the 
ports  of  the  State,  Mr.  Choate  supported  it.  He  did 
it,  though  reluctantly,  because  the  articles  seemed  to 
be  contrary  to  the  Federal  Constitution.  Admitting 
that  Florida  had  the  right  to  pass  such  municipal  laws 
as  her  circumstances  required,  he  wished  that  those 
who  denied  their  constitutionality  might  go  to  the 
Supreme  Court  without  being  met  by  the  adverse 
action  of  Congress.  Massachusetts  was  even  then 
engaged  in  a  controversy  with  two  other  States  in- 
volving the  questions  here  brought  to  notice',  and  all 
that  he  solicited  was  an  opportunity  to  have  the  right 


1844-1845.]  SMITHSONIAN  INSTITUTION.  153 

of  the  Southern  States  to  arrest  the  colored  citizens  of 
the  North,  brought  directly  before  the  Supreme  Court 
of  the  United  States  for  its  decision ;  a  decision, 
whatever  it  were,  that  Massachusetts  would  be  sure 
to  respect. 

Of  all  the  objects,  however,  which  came  before  the 
Senate  during  the  session,  none  interested  Mr.  Choate 
more  deeply  than  the  organization  of  the  Smithsonian 
Institution.  The  will  of  James  Smithson,  containing 
his  munificent  bequest,  was  dated  October  23,  1826, 
nearly  three  years  before  his  death.1  The  bequest 
was  accepted  by  Congress  in  1836,  and  the  money  was 
received  by  the  Government  of  the  United  States  on 
the  1st  of  September,  1838.  The  disposition  of  so 
large  a  fund,  amounting  to  more  than  half  a  million  of 
dollars,  became  a  matter  of  much  solicitude  to  all  who 
regarded  the  interests  of  knowledge,  or  the  honor  of 
the  country.  Many  were  afraid,  that  through  the 
recklessness  of  parties,  it  would  in  some  way  be  lost. 
If  preserved,  intelligent  men  differed  as  to  the  use  to 
be  made  of  it.  In  the  summer  of  1838,  by  order  of 
the  President  of  the  United  States,  letters  were  ad- 
dressed to  eminent  persons  in  various  parts  of  the 
country,  soliciting  advice.  As  might  have  been  an- 
ticipated, the  opinions  were  as  diverse  as  the  men. 
John  Quincy  Adams,  who  had  devoted  much  thought 
to  the  subject,  recommended  that  the.  income  of  the 
fund,  for  a  series  of  years,  should  be  devoted  to  estab- 
lishing a  National  Observatory.  President  Wayland 
sketched  the  plan  of  a  University.  Mr.  Rush  pro- 
posed the  collection  of  seeds,  plants,  objects  of  natural 
history,  and  antiquities,  and,  in  addition,  courses  of 

1  Smithson  died  June  27,  1829. 


154  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS  CHOATE.  [CHAP.  V. 

lectures,  which  should  be  free  to  a  certain  number  of 
young  men  from  each  State.  Other  plans  were  also 
suggested,  and  the  subject  was  discussed  from  time 
to  time  in  both  branches  of  Congress,  without,  how- 
ever, leading  to  any  definite  result.  In  December, 
1844,  Mr.  Tappan,  a  Senator  from  Ohio,  brought  in 
a  bill  similar  to  one  which  he  had  advocated  during  a 
former  session,  providing  for  the  selection  of  grounds 
for  purposes  of  agriculture  and  horticulture,  the  erec- 
tion of  buildings,  and  the  appointment  of  Professors 
and  Lecturers.  An  Institution,  he  thought,  would 
thus  be  established  similar  in  plan  and  results  to  the 
Garden  of  Plants  in  Paris. 

Mr.  Choate  was  so  anxious  for  some  organization 
that  he  stood  ready  to  vote  for  any  reasonable  propo- 
sition which  would  command  a  majority,  but  another 
scheme,  radically  different  from  that  proposed  by  the 
bill,  seemed  to  him  so  much  to  be  preferred,  that  on 
the  8th  of  January,  1845,  he  offered,  as  an  amend- 
ment, what  was  called  the  Library  Plan.  The  char- 
acteristic feature  of  this  was  a  provision  that  a  sum 
not  less  than  f  20,000  should  be  annually  expended 
for  the  purchase  of  books  and  manuscripts  for  the 
formation  of  a  Library,  which  for  extent,  complete- 
ness, and  value,  "  should  be  worthy  of  the  donor  of 
the  fund,  and  of  this  nation,  and  of  this  age."  There 
were  reasons  at  that  time  for  such  a  disposition  of  the 
legacy,  which  do  not  to  the  same  extent  exist  now. 
Not  a  library  in  the  country  then  numbered  more  than 
50,000  volumes,  and  the  one  or  two  which. contained 
so  many,  had  no  funds  for  their  large  increase,  or 
even  adequate  to  their  preservation.  The  bill  thus 
amended  was  amply  discussed,  and  finally  passed  the 


1844-1845.]  SMITHSONIAN  INSTITUTION.  155 

Senate  Jan.  23,  1845.  It  being  the  short  session 
of  Congress,  the  subject  was  not  reached  in  the  House 
in  season  for  a  vote.  Mr.  Choate  left  the  Senate  in 
March,  and  of  course  had  no  further  public  agency  in 
the  organization.  During  the  next  session,  however, 
a  new  bill,  substantially  the  same  as  that  proposed  by 
Mr.  Choate,  was  carried  through  the  House,  mainly 
by  the  exertions  of  Hon.  George  P.  Marsh,  then  a 
member  from  Vermont.  It  authorized  the  Regents  to 
make  an  appropriation  not  exceeding  an  average  of 
$25,000  annually,  for  the  formation  of  a  library,  com- 
posed of  valuable  works  pertaining  to  all  departments 
of  human  knowledge.  Several  other  plans  were  urged, 
but  all  were  rejected,  and  the  bill  which  passed  took 
its  final  shape  from  a  series  of  amendments  proposed 
by  Mr.  Marsh,  "all  with  a  view,"  as  he  said,  "to 
direct  the  appropriation  entirely  to  the  purposes  of  a 
library."  In  the  Senate,  the  bill  was  referred  to  a 
Select  Committee,  and  after  free  discussion  and  the 
rejection  of  several  amendments,  finally  passed  that 
body  precisely  as  it  came  from  the  House.  It  was 
approved  by  the  President,  and  became  a  law  Aug. 
10,  1846. 

It  may  be  proper  to  state  here  briefly  and  with 
reference  only  to  results,  Mr.  Choate's  subsequent 
connection  with  an  Institution  in  the  establishment 
and  welfare  of  which  he  had  taken  so  deep  an  in- 
terest. He  was  elected  a  member  of  its  first  Board  of 
Regents ;  an  honor  eminently  due  to  his  efforts  in  its 
behalf,  and  to  the  fact  that  the  plan  of  a  library,  which 
he  had  initiated,  had  been  adopted  by  Congress.  At 
the  first  meeting  of  the  Board,  a  committee  was  ap- 
pointed, of  which  Mr.  Choate  was  the  chairman,  to 


156  MEMOIR  OF  EUFUS   CHOATE.  [CHAP.  V. 

prepare  a  report  upon  the  formation  of  a  library,  and 
in  accordance  with  their  recommendation,  the  Board 
appropriated  $20,000  out  of  the  interest  of  the  fund, 
for  the  purchase  of  books  and  the  gradual  fitting  up 
of  a  library.  A  committee  was  also  raised  to  prepare 
extended  lists  of  books  in  different  departments  of 
learning,  proper  to  be  first  purchased.  Notwithstand- 
ing this  beginning,  however,  a  strong  opposition  to 
the  library  existed  among  the  Regents,  some  of  whom 
had,  from  the  first,  favored  a  plan  subsequently 
known  as  the  "  system  of  active  operations."  As  a 
means  of  conciliation,  it  was  voted,  early  in  the  next 
year,  to  divide  the  income  equally  between  the  two 
classes  of  objects,  the  Library,  Museum,  and  Gallery 
of  Art,  on  the  one  side,  and  the  Publication  of  Trans- 
actions, Original  Researches,  and  Lectures,  on  the 
other.  This  was  proposed  and  accepted  as  a  compro- 
mise, although  by  some  acquiesced  in  with  reluctance. 
Mr.  Marsh,  especially,  was  so  convinced  of  its  failure 
to  meet  the  intent  of  the  law,  that  he  proposed  to 
invoke  again  the  action  of  Congress,  and  yielded  only 
to  repeated  solicitations,  and  to  a  reluctance  to  dis- 
turb an  arrangement,  in  which  the  public  generally 
had  no  great  interest,  and  which,  it  was  hoped,  would 
conciliate  all  parties.  The  friends  of  the  original  plan 
of  Congress  were,  however,  doomed  to  greater  disap- 
pointment. The  genius  of  the  Institution  bent  to 
science,  not  to  letters.  Years  rolled  on,  and  the 
library  was  suffered  to  languish  in  the  shade.  Instead 
of  a  vigorous  effort  to  increase  it  by  a  systematic  appli- 
cation of  appropriated  funds,  a  proposition  was  made 
to  annul  the  compromise  itself,  and  leave  the  appor- 
tionment of  the  expenditures  to  the  annual  determi- 


1844-1845.J  SMITHSONIAN    INSTITUTION.  157 

nation  of  the  Board  of  Regents.  A  section  of  the  law 
providing  that  "of  any  other  moneys  accruing  as 
interest  upon  the  fund,  not  appropriated,  the  man- 
agers may  make  such  disposal  as  they  shall  deem  best 
suited  for  promoting  the  purpose  of  the  testator,"  was 
relied  on  as  conferring  the  requisite  authority  for  this 
change  of  plan. 

Of  this  proposition  Mr.  Choate  wrote  from  Boston, 
Feb.  4,  1854:- 

"  Situated  so  far  off,  I  cannot  comprehend  the  rea- 
sons on  which  the  compromise  is  sought  to  be  dis- 
turbed. It  was  the  result  of  years  of  disagreeing 
opinions,  and  of  reflections  on  all  modes  of  adminis- 
tering the  fund.  The  claims  of  the  methods  of  pub- 
lication of  papers,  and  of  the  collection  of  books  and 
specimens  of  art,  were  thoroughly  canvassed,  and  re- 
spectively well  understood.  The  necessity  of  recon- 
ciling opinions  by  concession  was  seen  to  be  coercive. 
It  was  yielded  to,  and  the  matter  was  put,  as  it  was 
thought,  at  rest.  It  has  been  acted  on  long  enough  to 
demonstrate,  that  if  adhered  to  honorably  and  calmly 
and  permanently,  without  restlessness  and  without 
ambition,  except  to  do  good  and  to  pursue  truth 
under  and  according  to  it,  it  will  assuredly  work  out 
great,  visible,  and  enduring  results,  in  as  much  variety 
of  form,  satisfactory  to  as  large  a  variety  of  opinions, 
as  can  be  expected  of  any  thing. 

"  For  myself  I  should  deplore  any  change  in  the 
distribution  of  the  fund.  I  appreciate  the  claims  of 
science  on  the  Institution ;  and  the  contributions 
which,  in  the  form  of  discovery  and  investigation, 
under  its  able  Secretary,  it  is  making  to  good  knowl- 
edge. But  I  insist  that  it  owes  a  great  library  to  the 


158  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS   CHOATE.  [CHAP.  V. 

Capital  of  the  New  World ;  something  to  be  seen,  — 
preserved,  —  and  to  grow,  —  into  which  shall  be 
slowly,  but  surely  and  judiciously,  gathered  the  best 
thoughts  of  all  the  civilizations.  God  forbid  that 
we  should  not  have  reach,  steadiness,  and  honor 
enough  to  adhere  to  this  as  one  great  object  of  the 
fund,  solemnly  proposed,  and  never  to  be  lost  sight 
of." 

He  subsequently  opposed  this  new  plan  before  the 
Board,  in  a  speech,  of  which  there  is  no  record,  but 
which  one  of  the  Regents  said,  was  "  the  most  beauti- 
ful that  ever  fell  from  human  lips ; "  and  another, 
Mr.  Douglas,  added,  '•  that  it  seemed  impertinence 
for  anybody  else  after  it  to  say  a  word."  It  did 
not  avail.  The  Board  was  predetermined,  and  Mr. 
Choate,  who  had  been  re-elected  as  Regent  but  a 
short  time  before,  at  once  concluded  to  resign  his 
position.  It  was  inconvenient  for  him  to  attend  the 
meetings,  and,  having  no  longer  the  interest  of  the 
library  to  lead  him  there,  he  chose  not  to  be  even 
indirectly  responsible  for  the  proceedings.  There 
were  other  circumstances  which  urged  him  also  to 
the  same  conclusion,  among  which,  doubtless,  was 
his  sympathy  with  Professor  Jewett,  who  had  been 
summarily  deprived  of  his  position  as  Librarian.  He 
accordingly  sent  his  resignation  in  the  following 
letter :  — 

"  To  HON.  JESSE  D.  BRIGHT,  President  pro  tempore  of  the  Senate,  and 
HON.  LINN  BOYD,  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Representatives :  — 

"  I  take  leave  to  communicate  to  the  two  Houses  of  Con- 
gress my  resignation  of  the  office  of  Regent  of  the  Smithson- 
ian Institution. 

"  It  is  due  to  the  body  which  has  been  pleased  to  honor  me 
with  this  trust  for  some  years,  and  has  recently  conferred  it 


1844-1845.]        RESIGNS   HIS   PLACE    AS   REGENT.  159 

for  a  new  term,  to  say  that  this  step  is  taken  not  from  any 
loss  of  interest  in  the  welfare  of  that  important  establishment, 
but  in  part  from  the  inconvenience  experienced  in  attending 
the  meetings,  and  in  part,  also,  and  more  immediately,  from 
my  inability  to  concur  or  acquiesce  in  an  interpretation  of  the 
Act  of  Congress  constituting  the  actual  Institution  and  the 
Board  of  Regents,  which  has  been  adopted,  and  is  now  about 
to  be  practically  carried  into  administration  by  a  majority 
of  the  Board.  That  act,  it  has  seemed  to  me,  peremptorily 
'  directs  a  manner,'  and  devises  and  prescribes  a  plan,  accord- 
ing to  which  it  intends  that  the  Institution  shall  accomplish  the 
will  of  the  donor.  By  the  earlier  law  accepting  the  gift,  Con- 
gress engaged  to  direct  such  a  manner  and  to  devise  such  a 
plan,  and  pledged  the  faith  of  the  United  States  that  the  funds 
should  be  applied  according  to  such  plan  and  such  manner. 
In  fulfilment  of  that  pledge,  and  in  the  performance  of  its 
inalienable  and  incommunicable  duty  as  trustee  of  the  charity, 
that  body,  after  many  years  of  deliberation  —  from  which  it 
never  sought  to  relieve  itself  by  devolving  the  work  upon  the 
discretion  of  others  —  matured  its  plan,  and  established  the 
actual  Institution  to  carry  it  out.  Of  this  plan,  the  general 
features  are  sketched  with  great  clearness  and  great  com- 
pleteness in  the  law.  Without  resorting  for  aid,  in  its  in- 
terpretation, to  its  parliamentary  history,  the  journals  and 
debates,  the  substantial  meaning  seems  to  be  palpable  and 
unequivocal  in  its  terms.  By  such  aid  it  is  rendered  quite 
certain.  A  Board  of  Regents  is  created  to  administer  it. 
Some  discretionary  powers,  of  course,  are  given  to  the 
Board  in  regard  of  details,  and  in  regard  of  possible  sur- 
pluses of  income  which  may  remain  at  any  given  time,  while 
the  plan  of  Congress  is  being  zealously  and  judiciously  car- 
ried into  effect;  but  these  discretionary  powers  are  given, 
I  think,  in  trust  for  the  plan  of  Congress,  and  as  auxiliary 
to,  co-operative  with,  and  executory  of  it.  They  were  given 
for  the  sake  of  the  plan,  simply  to  enable  the  Regents  the 
more  effectually  and  truly  to  administer  that  very  one  —  not 
to  enable  them  to  devise  and  administer  another  of  their  own, 
unauthorized  in  the  terms  of  the  law,  incompatible  with  its 
announced  objects  and  its  full  development  —  not  alluded  to 
in  it  anywhere,  and  which,  as  the  journals  and  the  debates 
inform  us,  when  presented  to  the  House  under  specific  propo- 
sitions, was  rejected. 

"  Of  this  act  an  interpretation  has  now  been  adopted  by 


160  MEMOIR   OF   RUTUS   CHOATE.  [CHAP.  V. 

which,  it  has  seemed  to  me,  these  discretionary  means  of  car- 
rying the  will  of  Congress  into  effect  are  transformed  into 
means  of  practically  disappointing  that  will,  and  of  building 
up  an  institution  substantially  unlike  that  which  it  intended ; 
which  supersedes  and  displaces  it,  and  in  effect  repeals  the 
law.  Differences  of  opinion  had  existed  in  the  Board  from 
its  first  meeting,  in  regard  of  the  administration  of  the  act ; 
but  they  were  composed  by  a  resolution  of  compromise,  ac- 
cording to  which  a  full  half  of  the  annual  income  was  to  be 
eventually  applied  in  permanence  to  what  I  deem  the  essen- 
tial parts  of  the  plan  of  Congress.  That  resolution  of  com- 
promise is  now  formally  rescinded,  and  henceforward  the 
discretion  of  the  Regents,  and  not  the  act  of  Congress,  is  to 
be  the  rule  of  appropriation ;  and  that  discretion  has  already 
declared  itself  for  another  plan  than  what  I  deem  the  plan 
of  Congress.  It  may  be  added  that  under  the  same  interpre- 
tation, the  office  and  powers  of  secretary  are  fundamentally 
changed  from  those  of  the  secretary  of  the  law,  as  I  read  it, 
and  are  greatly  enlarged. 

"  In  this  interpretation  I  cannot  acquiesce  ;  and  with  entire 
respect  for  the  majority  of  the  Board,  and  with  much  kind- 
ness and  regard  to  all  its  members,  I  am  sure  that  my  duty 
requires  a  respectful  tender  of  resignation.  I  make  it  accord- 
ingly, and  am  Your  obedient  servant, 

"  RUFUS  CHOATE. 
"WASHINGTON,  D.C.,  Jan.  13,  1855." 

The  reception  of  this  letter  excited  some  commo- 
tion in  Congress,  and  gave  rise  to  sharp  debates.  The 
House  of  Representatives  appointed  a  select  commit- 
tee, to  whom  it  was  referred,  with  directions  to  in- 
quire into  the  management  and  expenditure  of  the 
funds  of  the  Institution.  The  two  letters  which 
follow,  to  the  chairman  of  the  committee,  will  show 
more  completely  Mr.  Choate's  views  and  feelings:  — 

To  HON.  CHARLES  W.  UPHAM. 

"BOSTON,  Feb.  2,  1855. 

"HON.  C.  W.  UPHAM,  —  My  dear  Sir:  I  happened  to  be 
quite  sick  when  your  letters  reached  me,  and  am  only  now  able 
to  go  out,  without  being  equal  to  any  thing.  It  would  afford 


1844-1845.]          LETTER  TO  HON.  C.  W.  UPHAM.  161 

me  the  truest  pleasure  to  be  able  to  transmit  to  the  commit- 
tee a  few  thoughts  on  the  sense  of  the  act  of  Congress.  That, 
if  read  carefully,  by  the  lights  of  its  history,  and  with  a  mind 
not  pre-occupied,  it  makes  a  plan  which,  until  a  new  law  is 
passed,  the  Regents  were  bound  to  execute  heartily,  —  is, 
however,  so  clear,  that  I  do  not  see  what  can  be  added  to  the 
bare  enunciation.  It  happened  to  it  just  what  happened  to 
the  Constitution.  It  was  opposed  because  it  was  a  Library 
measure,  until  it  became  a  law,  and  then  a  metaphysics  was 
applied  to  it  to  show  that  it  was  no  Library  measure  after  all. 
I  await  with  great  interest  the  proceedings  of  your  committee  ; 
and,  if  my  health  will  permit,  I  mean  to  address  something, 
less  or  more,  to  the  Hon.  Chairman  as  such. 
"  1  am,  most  truly, 

"  Your  ob't  servant  and  friend, 

"  RUFUS  CHOATE." 


To  HON.  CHARLES  W.  UPHAM. 

"  BOSTON,  Feb.  19, 1855. 

"  DEAR  MR.  UPHAM,  —  I  am  distressed  to  find  that  it 
will  not  be  possible  for  me  to  prepare  any  thing  for  the  eye 
of  the  committee.  My  engagements  are  so  utterly  out  of 
proportion  to  my  health,  that  I  am  prostrated  and  imbecile 
for  all  effort  but  the  mill-horse  walk  of  my  daily  tasks.  It 
was  never  my  purpose  to  do  more  than  discuss  the  question 
of  the  intent  of  Congress.  The  intent  of  Smithson  is  not 
the  problem  now.  It  is  the  intent  of  Congress ;  and  that 
is  so  transparent,  and  is  so  evidenced  by  so  many  distinct 
species  of  proof,  that  I  really  feel  that  I  should  insult  the 
committee  by  arguing  it.  That  Congress  meant  to  devise 
a  plan  of  its  own  is  certain.  The  uniform  opinion  of  men 
in  Congress  from  the  start  had  been  that  it  must  do  so. 
Hence,  solely,  the  years  of  delay,  caused  by  the  difficulties 
of  devising  a  plan.  Why  not  have  at  once  made  a  Board, 
and  devolved  all  on  them  ?  But  who  ever  thought  of  such 
a  thing?  If,  then,  Congress  would  mean,  and  had  meant, 
to  frame  a  plan,  what  is  it?  Nothing,  unless  it  is  that  of 
collections  of  books,  specimens  of  art  and  nature,  and  pos- 
sibly lectures.  It  is  either  these  exactly,  or  it  is  just  what 
the  Regents  please.  But  it  cannot  be  the  latter,  and  then 
it  is  these. 

11 


162  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS   CHOATE.  [CHAP.  V. 

"  1 .  These  are  provided  for  in  terms ;  nothing  else  is. 
2.  The  debates  show  that  all  things  else  were  rejected.  3. 
The  only  difficulties  are  these  two :  1st,  It  is  said  discre- 
tionary powers  are  given  to  the  Regents.  Yes ;  but  how 
does  good  faith  require  these  to  be  interpreted  ?  Are  they 
limited  or  unlimited  ?  If  the  latter,  then  Congress  has  framed 
and  preferred  no  plan  of  its  own,  but  has  committed  every 
thing  to  the  uncontrolled  fancies  of  the  Regents.  This,  if 
their  discretionary  powers  are  unlimited.  But  how  absurd 
to  say  this,  against  an  act  so  loaded  with  details,  and  whose 
history  shows  it  carefully  constructed  to  embody  a  plan  of 
Congress!  If,  then,  the  discretionary  powers  are  limited, 
how  are  they  limited  ?  So  as  to  subserve  and  help  out  the 
plan  of  Congress,  primarily  and  chiefly ;  and  when  the  good 
of  that  plan  may  be  best  advanced  by  a  little  surplus  here  or 
there,  they  may  do  with  that  rare  and  exceptional  case  what 
they  will.  2d,  The  second  difficulty  is,  that  the  Regents  are 
not  directed  to  expend  at  least  so  much,  but  not  above.  The 
difficulty,  as  they  put  it,  assumes  that  there  can  be  no  satis- 
factory evidence  of  a  plan  of  Congress,  unless  by  express 
language  enacting,  '  this  is  the  plan  of  Congress,'  or  '  it  is 
the  intention  of  Congress,  hereby,  that  the  income  shall  be 
applied  exclusively,  so  and  so,'  or,  that  '  whether  books  are 
cheap  or  dear,  a  certain  minimum,  shall  in  every  year  be 
laid  out  thereon,'  or  some  other  express  equivalent  of  lan- 
guage. But  this  is  foolish.  If  the  whole  antecedent  action 
in  Congress  from  the  first  shows  that  Congress  understands 
that  it  is  to  frame  a  plan ;  if  the  history  of  this  act  shows 
that  everybody  thought  they  were  framing  a  plan  ;  if  then 
you  find  one  in  all  its  great  outlines  actually  sketched,  build- 
ing, spacious  rooms,  provision  for  books  and  specimens,  &c., 
&c.,  —  constituting  de  facto  a  plan,  sufficient  to  exhaust  the 
income ;  and  if  you  find  not  a  trace  of  any  other  mode  or 
scheme,  how  absurd  to  demand,  in  addition  to  all  this,  a 
section  to  say,  '  By  the  way,  Congress  means  something  by 
all  this  pother ;  and  it  means  that  the  plan  it  has  thus  por- 
trayed is  the  plan  it  chooses  to  have  executed.'  Suppose  a 
law,  in  the  first  section  authorizing  a  ship  to  be  built  of  a 
size  and  construction  specifically  adapted  to  the  Arctic  navi- 
gation, as  our  building  is  to  be  for  books ;  and  in  a  second 
section,  an  enactment  that  the  captain  should  cruise  not  ex- 
ceeding ten  months  in  the  Arctic  Ocean ;  and  in  a  third,  that 
if  he  have  any  spare  time  to  cruise,  he  might  explore  any 


1844-1845.]  DEATH  OF   DR.   SEWALL.  163 

other  sea ;  could  he  go  one  month  to  the  Arctic,  and  then 
say  he  preferred  the  Mediterranean,  and  cruise  there  eleven  ? 
But  why  not  ?  There  are  no  express  words.  Hut  there  is 
other  evidence  of  legislative  intent,  —  the  build  of  the  ship, 
and  the  solicitous  provision  for  a  particular  sea,  and  the 
silence  about  all  others,  and  the  stupendous  dissimilarity  in 
the  two  adventures.  Jf,  besides,  you  found  a  Congressional 
history,  showing  that  everybody  understood  Congress  was 
selecting  its  own  sea,  motions  made  to  divide  the  year  with 
the  Mediterranean,  and  rejected,  it  would  be  altogether  quite 
the  case.  But  I  beg  your  pardon  for  these  platitudes.  I 
entreat  you  to  do  two  things  :  1.  Vindicate  the  sense  of  the 
law.  2.  Vindicate  art,  taste,  learning,  genius,  mind,  history, 

ethnology,  morals 

"  1  am  most  anxiously  and  faithfully  yours, 

"  R.  CHOATE." 

It  cannot  be  denied  that  Mr.  Choate  —  author  and 
successful  defender  of  the  library  plan,  as  he  was  — 
suffered  a  great  disappointment  in  the  final  disposition 
of  the  fund.  He  felt  that  it  by  no  means  met  the 
purpose  of  the  Congress  that  passed  the  act ;  and, 
looking  to  permanent  and  comprehensive  effects, 
would  not  be  likely  to  secure  a  result  so  conspic- 
uous, so  noble,  so  worthy  of  the  nation,  so  free  from 
the  possibility  of  perversion,  or  so  directly  meeting 
the  great  want  of  the  learned,  cultivated,  inquisitive, 
and  thoughtful  throughout  the  whole  land,  as  if 
mainly  or  largely  devoted  to  a  library. 

In  the  spring  of  1845  Mr.  Choate  lost  his  brother- 
in-law.  Dr.  Sewall,  to  whom  in  early  life  he  had  been 
so  much  indebted  for  advice  and  assistance,  and  whose 
house  in  Washington  had  often  been  his  home.  The 
following  letter  to  his  relative,  Mrs.  Brinley,  who  was 
then  in  Dr.  Sewall's  family,  was  written  before  the 
news  of  his  death  had  reached  Boston. 


164  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS  CHOATE.  [CHAP.  V. 


To  MRS.  FRANCIS  BRINLEY. 

"  Thursday,  Fast  Day,  1845. 

"My  DEAR  Cousm  SARAH,  —  No  one  can  express  my 
obligations  to  you  for  your  faithful  kindness  and  thought- 
fulness  during  all  this  great  affliction  at  the  Doctor's.  God 
bless  you  for  it  all.  I  have  mourned  deeply  over  the  sad 
and  surprising  event,  although  I  had  again  conceived  the 
strongest  hopes  of  his  recovery.  Give  my  best  love  to  all 
who  are  alive.  I  wish  my  nephew,  Thomas,  would  convey 
to  his  father,  if  living,  my  thanks  and  profound  gratitude 
for  a  life  of  kindness  to  me,  and  would,  —  as  he  will  —  soothe 
his  mother.  ...  If  you  leave  Washington,  and  this  change 
happens  at  the  Doctor's,  it  is  a  spot  blotted  for  ever  from 
the  earth.  ...  I  know  not  what  to  write,  because  I  know 
not  how  or  what  or  who  you  all  are.  Pray  accept  my  love, 
and  give  it  to  all  our  dear  friends.  How  happy  for  you  that 
Miss  C.,  so  agreeable,  so  composed,  and  so  sympathetic,  is 
with  you.  God  bless  you. 

«  R.  CHOATE." 


1845-1849.]      ADDRESS  BEFORE  THE  LAW  SCHOOL.      165 


CHAPTER   VI. 

1845-1849. 

Address  before  the  Law  School  in  Cambridge  —  Argues  the  Case  of 
Rhode  Island  v.  Massachusetts  —  Defence  of  Tirrell  —  The  Oliver 
Smith's  Will  Case  —  Speaks  in  favor  of  General  Taylor  —  Offer 
of  a  Professorship  in  the  Cambridge  Law  School — Offer  of  a  Seat 
upon  the  Bench  —  The  Phillips  Will  Case  —  Journal. 

ON  leaving  the  Senate,  Mr.  Choate  for  a  time  bade 
farewell  to  politics,  and  returned  without  regret  to 
the  narrower  sphere  of  the  city  and  the  courts.  He 
had  become  known  for  his  intrepid  and  successful 
management  of  difficult  cases.  These  were  often 
intrusted  to  him  when  he  would  gladly  have  avoided 
the  responsibility,  if  his  sense  of  professional  duty 
would  have  allowed  ;  but  he  did  not  feel  at  liberty 
to  refuse  his  services  when  properly  solicited,  merely 
because  the  cause  was  distasteful,  or  the  client  pos- 
sibly undeserving  of  sympathy. 

In  the  summer  of  this  year,  1845,  he  delivered  an 
address  before  the  Law  School  at  Cambridge,  on  the 
"Position  and  Functions  of  the  American  Bar,  as  an 
element  of  Conservatism  in  the  State." 

This  noble  address  is  replete  with  political  wisdom. 
It  shows  the  careful  student,  to  whom  the  lessons 
of  history  are  living,  and  urgent,  —  the  profound 
and  philosophical  observer  of  the  causes  of  national 
prosperity  or  national  decay,  watchful  and  discrimi- 
nating of  the  dangers  of  the  State.  A  few  pages 


166  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS   CHOATE.         [CHAP.  VI. 

will   indicate,  although  partially  and   inadequately, 
the  drift  of  thought. 

"  Arid  so  the  dying  of  a  nation  begins  in  the  heart.  There 
are  sentiments  concerning  the  true  idea  of  the  State,  concern- 
ing law.  concerning  liberty,  concerning  justice,  so  active,  so 
mortal,  that  if  they  pervade  and  taint  the  general  mind,  and 
transpire  in  practical  politics,  the  commonwealth  is  lost  al- 
ready. It  was  of  these  that  the  democracies  of  Greece,  one 
after  another,  miserably  died.  It  was  not  so  much  the  spear 
of  the  great  Emathian  conqueror  which  bore  the  beaming 
forehead  of  Athens  to  the  dust,  as  it  was  that  diseased,  uni- 
versal opinion,  those  tumultuous  and  fraudulent  practical 
politics,  which  came  at  last  to  supersede  the  constitution  of 
Solon,  and  the  equivalents  of  Pericles,  which  dethroned  the 
reason  of  the  State,  shattered  and  dissolved  its  checks,  bal- 
ances, and  securities  against  haste  and  wrong,  annulled  its 
laws,  repudiated  its  obligations,  shamed  away  its  justice,  and 
set  up  instead,  for  rule,  the  passion,  ferocity,  and  caprice, 
and  cupidity,  and  fraud  of  a  flushed  majority,  cheated  and 
guided  by  sycophants  and  demagogues,  —  it  was  this  dis- 
eased public  opinion  and  these  politics,  its  fruits,  more  deadly 
than  the  gold  or  the  phalanx  of  Philip,  that  cast  her  down 
untimely  from  her  throne  on  high. 

"  And  now,  what  are  these  sentiments  and  opinions  from 
which  the  public  mind  of  America  is  in  danger,  and  which 
the  studies  and  offices  of  our  profession  have  fitted  us  and 
impose  on  us  the  duty  to  encounter  and  correct  ? 

"  In  the  first  place,  it  has  been  supposed  that  there  might 
be  detected,  not  yet  in  the  general  mind,  but  in  what  may 
grow  to  be  the  general  mind,  a  singularly  inadequate  idea 
of  the  State  as  an  unchangeable,  indestructible,  and,  speaking 
after  the  manner  of  men,  an  immortal  thing.  I  do  not  refer 
at  this  moment  exclusively  «to  the  temper  in  which  the  Fed- 
eral Union  is  regarded,  though  that  is  a  startling  illustration 
of  the  more  general  and  deeper  sentiment,  but  I  refer  in  a 
larger  view  to  what  some  have  thought  the  popular  or  com- 
mon idea  of  the  civil  State  itself,  its  sacredness,  its  perma- 
nence, its  ends,  —  in  the  lofty  phrase  of  Cicero,  its  eternity. 
The  tendency  appears  to  be,  to  regard  the  whole  concern  as 
an  association  altogether  at  will,  and  at  the  will  of  every- 
body. Its  boundary  lines,  its  constituent  numbers,  its  physi- 
cal, social,  and  constitutional  identity,  its  polity,  its  law,  its 


1845-1849.]      ADDRESS  BEFORE  THE  LAW  SCHOOL.      167 

continuance  for  ages,  its  dissolution,  —  all  these  seem  to  be 
held  in  the  nature  of  so  many  open  questions.  Whether 
our  country  —  words  so  simple,  so  expressive,  so  sacred  ; 
which,  like  father,  child,  wife,  should  present  an  image  famil- 
iar, endeared,  definite  to  the  heart  —  whether  our  country 
shall,  in  the  course  of  the  next  six  months,  extend  to  the 
Pacific  Ocean  and  the  Gulf,  or  be  confined  to  the  parochial 
limits  of  the  State  where  we  live,  or  have  no  existence  at  all 
for  us;  where  its  centre  of  power  shall  be;  whose  statues 
shall  be  borne  in  its  processions ;  whose  names,  what  days, 
what  incidents  of  glory  commemorated  in  its  anniversaries, 
and  what  symbols  blaze  on  its  flag,  —  in  all  this  there  is 
getting  to  be  a  rather  growing  habit  of  politic  non-commit- 
talism.  Having  learned  from  Rousseau  and  Locke,  and  our 
own  revolutionary  age,  its  theories  and  its  acts,  that  the 
State  is  nothing  but  a  contract,  rests  in  contract,  springs 
from  contract ;  that  government  is  a  contrivance  of  human 
wisdom  for  human  wants  ;  that  the  civil  life  like  the  Sabbath, 
is  made  for  man,  not  man  for  either ;  having  only  about 
seventy  years  ago  laid  hold  of  an  arbitrary  fragment  of  the 
British  empire,  and  appropriated  it  to  ourselves,  which  is 
all  the  country  we  ever  had ;  having  gone  on  enlarging, 
doubling,  trebling,  changing  all  this  since,  as  a  garment  or 
a  house ;  accustomed  to  encounter  every  day,  at  the  polls, 
in  the  market,  at  the  miscellaneous  banquet  of  our  Liberty 
everywhere,  crowds  of  persons  whom  we  never  saw  before, 
strangers  in  the  country,  yet  just  as  good  citizens  as  our- 
selves ;  with  a  whole  continent  before  us,  or  half  a  one,  to 
choose  a  home  in ;  teased  and  made  peevish  by  all  manner 
of  small,  local  jealousies  ;  tormented  by  the  stimulations  of  a 
revolutionary  philanthropy  ;  enterprising,  speculative,  itine- 
rant, improving,  '  studious  of  change,  and  pleased  with  nov- 
elty '  beyond  the  general  habit  of  desultory  man  ;  —  it  might 
almost  seem  to  be  growing  to  be  our  national  humor  to  hold 
ourselves  free  at  every  instant,  to  be  and  do  just  what  we 
please,  go  where  we  please,  stay  as  long  as  we  please  and 
no  longer ;  and  that  the  State  itself  were  held  to  be  no  more 
than  an  encampment  of  tents  on  the  great  prairie,  pitched 
at  sun-down,  and  struck  to  the  sharp  crack  of  the  rifle  next 
morning,  instead  of  a  structure,  stately  and  eternal,  in  which 
the  generations  may  come,  one  after  another,  to  the  great 
gift  of  this  social  life. 

"  On  such  sentiments  as  these,  how  can  a  towering  and 


168  MEMOIR   OF  RUFUS   CHOATE.          [CHAP.  VI. 

durable  fabric  be  set  up  ?  To  use  the  metaphor  of  Bacon, 
on  such  soil  how  can  '  greatness  be  sown  '  ?  How  unlike  the 
lessons  of  the  masters,  at  whose  feet  you  are  bred !  The 
studies  of  our  profession  have  taught  us  that  the  State  is 
framed  for  a  duration  without  end, —  without  end  —  till  the 
earth  and  the  heavens  be  no  more.  Sic  constiluta  civitas  ut 
eterna  !  In  the  eye  and  contemplation  of  law,  its  masses  may 
die ;  its  own  corporate  being  can  never  die.  If  we  inspect 
the  language  of  its  fundamental  ordinance,  every  word  ex- 
pects, assumes,  foretells  a  perpetuity,  lasting  as  '  the  great 
globe  itself,  and  all  which  it  inherit.'  If  we  go  out  of  that 
record  and  inquire  for  the  designs  and  the  hopes  of  its  founders 
ab  extra,  we  know  that  they  constructed  it,  and  bequeathed  it, 
for  the  latest  posterity.  li'  we  reverently  rise  to  a  conjecture 
of  the  purposes  for  which  the  Ruler  of  the  world  permitted 
and  decreed  it  to  be  instituted,  in  order  to  discern  how  soon 
it  will  have  performed  its  office  and  may  be  laid  aside,  we  see 
that  they  reach  down  to  the  last  hour  of  the  life  of  the  last 
man  that  shall  live  upon  the  earth ;  that  it  was  designed  by 
the  Infinite  Wisdom,  to  enable  the  generation  who  framed 
it,  and  all  the  generations,  to  perfect  their  social,  moral,  and 
religious  nature  ;  to  do  and  to  be  good ;  to  pursue  happiness  ; 
to  be  fitted,  by  the -various  discipline  of  the  social  life,  by 
obedience,  by  worship,  for  the  life  to  come.  When  these 
ends  are  all  answered,  the  State  shall  die !  When  these  are 
answered,  intereat  et  concidat  onmis  hie  mundus  !  Until  they 
are  answered,  e$to,  eritque  perpetua  ! 

"  In  the  next  place,  it  has  been  thought  that  there  was 
developing  itself  in  the  general  sentiment,  and  in  the  practi- 
cal politics  of  the  time,  a  tendency  towards  one  of  those  great 
changes  by  which  free  States  have  oftenest  perished,  —  a 
tendency  to  push  to  excess  the  distinctive  and  characteristic 
principles  of  our  system,  whereby,  as  Aristotle  has  said,  gov- 
ernments usually  perish,  —  a  tendency  towards  transition 
from  the  republican  to  the  democratical  era,  of  the  history 
and  epochs  of  liberty. 

"  Essentially  and  generally,  it  would  be  pronounced  by 
those  who  discern  it,  a  tendency  to  erect  the  actual  majority 
of  the  day  into  the  de  jure  and  actual  government  of  the  day. 
It  is  a  tendency  to  regard  the  actual  will  of  that  majority  as 
the  law  of  the  State.  It  is  a  tendency  to  regard  the  shortest 
and  simplest  way  of  collecting  that  will,  and  the  promptest 
and  most  irresistible  execution  of  it,  as  the  true  polity  of  lib- 


1845-1849.]       ADDRESS  BEFORE  THE  LAW  SCHOOL.     169 

erty.  It  is  a  tendency  which,  pressed  to  its  last  development, 
would,  if  considerations  of  mere  convenience  or  inconvenience 
did  not  hinder,  do  exactly  this :  it  would,  assemble  the  whole 
people  in  a  vast  mass,  as  once  they  used  to  assemble  beneath 
the  sun  of  Athens  ;  and  there,  when  the  eloquent  had  spoken, 
and  the  wise  and  the  foolish  had  counselled,  would  commit 
the  transcendent  questions  of  war,  peace,  taxation,  and  trea- 
ties ;  the  disposition  of  the  fortunes  and  honor  of  the  citizen 
and  statesman  ;  death,  banishment,  or  the  crown  of  gold ;  the 
making,  interpreting,  and  administration  of  the  law;  and  all 
the  warm,  precious,  and  multifarious  interests  of  the  social 
life,  to  the  madness  or  the  jest  of  the  hour. 

"  I  have  not  time  to  present  what  have  been  thought  to  be 
the  proofs  of  the  existence  of  this  tendency  ;  and  it  is  need- 
less to  do  so.  It  would  be  presumptuous,  too,  to  speculate, 
if  it  has  existence,  on  its  causes  and  its  issues.  I  desire  to 
advert  to  certain  particulars  in  which  it  may  be  analyzed, 
and  through  which  it  displays  itself,  for  the  purpose  of  show- 
ing that  the  studies,  employments,  and,  so  to  say,  professional 
politics,  of  the  bar  are  essentially,  perhaps  availably,  antag- 
onistical  to  it,  or  moderative  of  it. 

"  It  is  said,  then,  that  you  may  remark  this  tendency,  first, 
in  an  inclination  to  depreciate  the  uses  and  usurp  the  func- 
tions of  those  organic  forms  in  which  the  regular,  definite,  and 
legally  recognized  powers  of  the  State  are  embodied,  —  to 
depreciate  the  uses  and  usurp  the  function  of  written  constitu- 
tions, limitations  on  the  legislature,  the  distribution  of  gov- 
ernment into  departments,  the  independence  of  the  judiciary, 
the  forms  of  orderly  proceeding,  and  all  the  elaborate  and 
costly  apparatus  of  checks  and  balances,  by  which,  as  I  have 
said,  we  seek  to  secure  a  government  of  laws  and  not  of  men. 

" '  The  first  condition '  —  it  is  the  remark  of  a  man  of 
great  genius,  who  saw  very  far  by  glances  into  the  social  sys- 
tem, Coleridge,  —  '  the  first  condition  in  order  to  a  sound  con- 
stitution of  the  body  politic  is  a  due  proportion  between  the 
free  and  permeative  life  and  energy  of  the  State  and  its  organ- 
ized powers.'  For  want  of  that  proportion  the  government 
of  Athens  was  shattered  and  dissolved.  For  want  of  that 
proportion  the  old  constitutions  of  Solon,  the  reforms  of 
Clisthenes,  the  sanctity  of  the  Areopagus,  the  temperaments  of 
Pericles,  were  burnt  up  in  the  torrent  blaze  of  an  unmitigated 
democracy.  Every  power  of  the  State, — executive,  legal, 
judicial — was  grasped  by  the  hundred-handed  assembly  of 


170  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS   CHOATE.         [CHAP.  VI. 

the  people.  The  result  is  in  her  history.  She  became  a 
by-word  of  dissension  and  injustice  ;  and  that  was  her  ruin. 

"  I  wonder  how  long  that  incomprehensible  democracy 
would  have  hesitated,  after  the  spirit  of  permeative  liberty 
had  got  the  better  of  the  organized  forms,  upon  our  Spot 
Pond,  and  Long  Pond,  and  Charles  River  water-questions. 
This  intolerable  hardship  and  circumlocution  of  applying  to 
a  legislature  of  three  independent  and  co-ordinate  depart- 
ments, sitting  under  a  written  constitution,  with  an  indepen- 
dent judiciary  to  hold  it  up  to  the  fundamental  law,  —  the 
hardship  of  applying  to  such  a  legislature  for  power  to  bring 
water  into  the  city ;  this  operose  machinery  of  orders  of 
notice,  hearings  before  committees,  adverse  reports,  favorable 
reports  rejected,  disagreements  of  the  two  Houses,  veto  of 
Governor,  a  charter  saving  vested  rights  of  other  people, 
meetings  of  citizens  in  wards  to  vote  unawed,  unwatched, 
every  man  according  to  his  sober  second  thought,  —  how  long 
do  you  think  such  conventionalities  as  these  would  have  kept 
that  beautiful,  passionate,  and  self-willed  Athens,  standing, 
like  the  Tantalus  of  her  own  poetry,  plunged  in  crystal  lakes 
and  gentle  historical  rivers  up  to  the  chin,  perishing  with 
thirst?  Why,  some  fine,  sunshiny  forenoon,  you  would  have 
heard  the  crier  calling  the  people,  one  and  all,  to  an  extraor- 
dinary assembly,  perhaps  in  the  Piraus,  as  a  pretty  full 
expression  of  public  opinion  was  desirable  and  no  other  place 
would  hold  everybody ;  you  would  have  seen  a  stupendous 
mass-meeting  roll  itself  together  as  clouds  before  all  the 
winds ;  standing  on  the  outer  edges  of  which  you  could  just 
discern  a  speaker  or  two  gesticulating,  catch  a  murmur  as  of 
waves  on  the  pebbly  beach,  applause,  a  loud  laugh  at  a  happy 
hit,  observe  some  six  thousand  hands  lifted  to  vote  or  swear, 
and  then  the  vast  congregation  would  separate  and  subside, 
to  be  seen  no  more.  And  the  whole  record  of  the  transaction 
would  be  made  up  in  some  half-dozen  lines  to  this  effect,  — 

it  might  be  in  -ZEschines,  —  that  in  the  month  of ,  under 

the  archonate  of ,  the  tribe  of  ,  exercising  the  office 

of  prytanes ,  an  extraordinary  assembly   was  called  to 

consult  on  the  supply  of  water ;  and  it  appearing  that  some 
six  persons  of  great  wealth  and  consideration  had  opposed  its 
introduction  for  some  time  past,  and  were  moreover  vehe- 
mently suspected  of  being  no  better  than  they  should  be,  it 
was  ordained  that  they  should  be  fined  in  round  sums,  com- 
puted to  be  enough  to  bring  in  such  a  supply  as  would  give 


1845-1849.]      ADDRESS  BEFORE  THE  LAW  SCHOOL.       171 

every  man  equal  to  twenty-eight  gallons  a  day;  and  a  certain 
obnoxious  orator  having  inquired  what  possible  need  there 
was  for  so  much  a  head,  Demades,  the  son  of  the  Mariner, 
replied,  that  that  person  was  the  very  last  man  in  all  Athens 
who  should  put  that  question,  since  the  assembly  must  see 
that  he  at  least  could  use  it  to  great  advantage  by  washing 
his  face,  hands,  and  robes  ;  and  thereupon  the  people  laughed 
and  separated. 

"  And  now  am  I  misled  by  the  influence  of  vocation  when 
I  venture  to  suppose  that  the  profession  of  the  Bar  may  do 
somewhat  —  should  be  required  to  do  somewhat  —  to  pre- 
serve the  true  proportion  of  liberty  to  organization,  —  to 
moderate  and  to  disarm  that  eternal  antagonism  ? 

"  These  '  organic  forms '  of  our  system,  —  are  they  not  in 
some  just  sense  committed  to  your  professional  charge  and 
care  ?  In  this  sense,  and  to  this  extent,  does  not  your  profes- 
sion approach  to,,  and  blend  itself  with,  one,  and  that  not  the 
least  in  dignity  and  usefulness,  of  the  departments  of  states- 
manship? Are  you  not  thus  statesmen  while  you  are  law- 
yers, and  because  you  are  lawyers?  These  constitutions  of 
government  by  which  a  free  people  have  had  the  virtue  and 
the  sense  to  restrain  themselves,  —  these  devices  of  profound 
wisdom  and  a  deep  study  of  man,  and  of  the  past,  by  which 
they  have  meant  to  secure  the  ascendency  of  the  just,  lofty, 
and  wise,  over  the  fraudulent,  low,  and  insane,  in  the  long- 
run  of  our  practical  politics,  —  these  temperaments  by  which 
justice  is  promoted,  and  by  which  liberty  is  made  possible 
and  may  be  made  immortal,  —  and  this  jus  publicum,  this 
great  written  code  of  public  law,  —  are  they  not  a  part,  in 
the  strictest  and  narrowest  sense,  of  the  appropriate  science 
of  your  profession  ?  More  than  for  any  other  class  or  calling 
in  the  community,  is  it  not  for  you  to  study  their  sense,  com- 
prehend their  great  uses,  and  explore  their  historical  origin 
and  illustrations,  —  to  so  hold  them  up  as  shields,  that  no  act 
of  legislature,  no  judgment  of  court,  no  executive  proclamation, 
no  order  of  any  functionary  of  any  description,  shall  transcend 
or  misconceive  them  —  to  so  hold  them  up  before  your  clients 
and  the  public,  as  to  keep  them  at  all  times  living,  intelligible, 
and  appreciated  in  the  universal  mind  ?  " 

Then  on  the  very  nature  of  law  he  utters  some 
words  which  it  were  well  that  all  law-makers  and  all 
citizens  should  carefully  ponder. 


172  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS   CHOATE.         [CHAP.  VI. 

"  It  is  one  of  the  distemperatures  to  which  an  unreasoning 
liberty  may  grow,  no  doubt,  to  regard  law  as  no  more  nor 
less  than  just  the  will  —  the  actual  and  present  will  —  of  the 
actual  majority  of  the  nation.  The  majority  govern.  What 
the  majority  pleases,  it  may  ordain.  What  it  ordains  is  law. 
So  much  for  the  source  of  law,  and  so  much  for  the  nature  of 
law.  But,  then,  as  law  is  nothing  but  the  will  of  a  major 
number,  as  that  will  differs  from  the  will  of  yesterday,  and 
will  differ  from  that  of  to-morrow,  and  as  all  law  is  a  restraint 
on  natural  right  and  personal  independence,  how  can  it  gain 
a  moment's  hold  on  the  reverential  sentiments  of  the  heart, 
and  the  profounder  convictions  of  the  judgment?  How  can 
it  impress  a  filial  awe ;  how  can  it  conciliate  a  filial  love ; 
how  can  it  sustain  a  sentiment  of  veneration  ;  how  can  it 
command  a  rational  and  animated  defence  ?  Such  sentiments 
are  not  the  stuff'  from  which  the  immortality  of  a  nation  is  to 
be  woven !  Oppose  now  to  this  the  loftier  philosophy  which 
we  have  learned.  In  the  language  of  our  system,  the  law  is 
not  the  transient  and  arbitrary  creation  of  the  major  will,  nor 
of  any  will.  It  is  not  the  offspring  of  will  at  all.  It  is  the 
absolute  justice  of  the  State,  enlightened  by  the  perfect  reason 
of  the  State.  That  is  law,  —  enlightened  justice  assisting  the 
social  nature  to  perfect  itself  by  the  social  life.  It  is  ordained, 
doubtless,  that  is,  it  is  chosen,  and  is  ascertained  by  the  wis- 
dom of  man.  But,  then,  it  is  the  master-work  of  man.  Quee 
est  enim  istorum  oratio  tarn  exquisita,  quce  sit  anteponenda 
bene  constitutes  civitati  publico  jure,  et  moribus  ? * 

"  By  the  costly  and  elaborate  contrivances  of  our  constitu- 
tions we  have  sought  to  attain  the  transcendent  result  of  ex- 
tracting and  excluding  haste,  injustice,  revenge,  and  folly  from 
the  place  and  function  of  giving  the  law,  and  of  introducing 
alone  the  reason  and  justice  of  the  wisest  and  the  best.  By 
the  aid  of  time,  —  time  which  changes  and  tries  all  things; 
tries  them,  and  works  them  pure,  —  we  subject  the  law,  after 
it  is  given,  to  the  tests  of  old  experience,  to  the  reason  and 
justice  of  successive  ages  and  generations,  to  the  best  thoughts 
of  the  wisest  and  safest  of  reformers.  And  then  and  thus  we 
pronounce  it  good.  Then  and  thus  we  cannot  choose  but 
reverence,  obey,  and  enforce  it.  We  would  grave  it  deep  into 
the  heart  of  the  undying  State.  We  would  strengthen  it  by 
opinion,  by  manners,  by  private  virtue,  by  habit,  by  the  awful 

1  Cicero  de  Republica,  I.  2. 


1845-1849.]  RHODE    ISLAND   BOUNDARY.  173 

hoar  of  innumerable  ages.  All  that  attracts  us  to  life,  all  that 
is  charming  in  the  perfected  and  adorned  social  nature,  we 
wisely  think  or  we  wisely  dream,  we  owe  to  the  all-encircling 
presence  of  the  law.  Not  even  extravagant  do  we  think  it  to 
hold,  that  the  Divine  approval  may  sanction  it  as  not  unworthy 
of  the  reason  which  we  derive  from  his  own  nature.  Not 
extravagant  do  we  hold  it  to  say,  that  there  is  thus  a  voice  of 
the  people  which  is  the  voice  of  God." 

In  January,  1846,  he  argued  before  the  Supreme 
Court  at  Washington  the  case  of  the  boundary  be- 
tween Massachusetts  and  Rhode  Island.  The  latter 
State  was  the  complainant,  and  Massachusetts  had 
made  an  answer.  Evidence  also  had  been  taken  by 
the  parties,  so  that  the  case  was  heard  upon  both  an- 
swer and  evidence.  The  words  of  the  Massachusetts 
charter  defined  the  part  of  the  boundary  in  question 
as  "  lying  within  the  space  of  three  English  miles  on 
the  south  part  of  Charles  River,  or  of  any  or  of  every 
part  thereof ;  "  and  the  State  of  Rhode  Island  insisted 
that  these  words  had  been  misconstrued  and  misap- 
plied in  former  adjustments  and  agreements  about  the 
line,  and  particularly  that  mistakes  had  been  made  as 
to  the  location  of  some  of  the  ancient  stations.  The 
case  disclosed  various  acts  and  proceedings  between 
the  respective  governments,  from  the  very  earliest 
times,  and  thus  opened  a  wide  field  of  inquiry  and 
discussion.  "  The  case,"  says  a  correspondent,  "  was 
argued  by  Randolph  arid  Whipple  for  Rhode  Island, 
and  Choate  and  Webster  for  Massachusetts.1  Mr. 
Randolph  occupied  three  days  in  referring  to  and 
reading  ancient  grants  and  documents.  Mr.  Choate 
confined  himself  to  that  branch  of  the  argument  re- 
sulting from  the  two  following  points  :  1.  The  true 

1  Howard's  Reports,  vol.  4,  pp.  591-640. 


174  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS  CHOATE.         [CHAP.  VL 

interpretation  of  the  charter.  2.  The  acts  of  1713, 
1718,  &c.,  being  acts  of  the  State  of  Rhode  Island  'of 
a  most  decisive  character.  But  these  points  went  to 
the  very  marrow  of  the  case ;  and  as  illustrated,  ex- 
panded, and  enforced  by  Mr.  Choate,  with  his  remark- 
able diction,  with  his  clear'  and  searching  analysis  and 
his  subtle  logic,  went  far  utterly  to  destroy  the  work 
of  the  preceding  three  days.  Every  one  who  heard 
that  argument  must  have  felt  that  there  was  some- 
thing new  under  the  sun ;  and  that  such  a  man  as 
Mr.  Choate  had  never  been  heard  in  that  court  be- 
fore." The  argument  made  a  strong  impression  upon 
the  judges.  Judge  Catron,  it  was  said,  was  so  much 
struck  and  charmed  by  it  that  it  became  a  standing 
inquiry  with  him  at  the  future  sessions  of  the  court, 
whether  Choate  was  not  coming  on  to  argue  some 
question.  "  I  have  heard  the  most  eminent  advo- 
cates," he  said,  "but  he  surpasses  them  all."  It 
especially  surprised  him,  as  it  did  others,  that  the 
soil  and  climate  of  New  England  —  sterile  and  harsh 
—  should  give  birth  to  eloquence  so  fervid,  beautiful, 
and  convincing.  Of  this  argument  there  remains  no 
report ;  nor  have  any  fragments  of  it  been  found 
among  Mr.  Choate's  manuscripts. 

In  March,  1846,  Mr.  Choate  made  his  celebrated 
defence  of  Albert  J.  Tirrell.  He  probably  never  made 
an  argument  at  the  bar  under  circumstances  appar- 
ently more  adverse,  nor  one  which,  from  the  nature 
of  one  part  of  the  defence,  and  from  his  unlooked-for 
success,  subjected  him  to  so  much  criticism.  He  took 
the  case  in  the  natural  way  of  business,  being  retained 
as  for  any  other  professional  service.  With  Tirrell 
himself  he  never  exchanged  a  word  till  the  day  of  the 


1845-1849.1  DEFENCE   OF   TIRRELL.  175 

trial.1  The  case  was  heard  in  Boston,  before  Justices 
Wilde,  Dewey,  and  Hubbard  —  venerable,  one  of 
them  for  age,  and  all  of  them  for  experience  and 
weight  of  character.  The  principal  facts  as  de- 
veloped at  the  trial  were  the  following:  Between 
four  and  five  o'clock  on  Monday  morning,  October 
27,  1845,  a  young  woman  named  Maria  Bickford  was 
found  dead  in  a  house  of  bad  repute,  kept  by  one 
Joel  Lawrence.  Albert  J.  Tirrell,  a  person  of  re- 
spectable family  and  connections,  but  of  vicious  life, ;- 
and  already  under  indictment  for  adultery,  was  known 
to  have  been  with  her  on  the  previous  afternoon  and 
late  in  the  evening,  the  doors  of  the  house  having 
been  locked  for  the  night.  He  had  long  been  a  para- 
mour of  hers,  and  for  her  company  had  forsaken  his 
own  wife.  On  the  morning  spoken  of,  several  inmates 
of  the  house  were  early  roused  by  a  cry  coming  ap- 
parently from  the  room  occupied  by  these  persons, 
followed  by  a  sound  as  of  a  heavy  body  falling  on  the 
floor.  Soon  afterwards  some  one  was  heard  going 
down  stairs,  making  an  indistinct  noise  as  if  stifled  by 
smoke ;  and  almost  immediately  those  in  the  house 
were  alarmed  by  the  smell  and  appearance  of  fire. 
After  the  fire  was  extinguished,  which  was  done  by 
the  help  of  a  fireman  and  a  neighbor,  the  body  of 
Mrs.  Bickford  was  found  on  the  floor  of  the  room  she 
had  occupied,  and  where  the  fire  principally  was,  at 

1  He  was  generally  averse  to  personal  contact  with  his  clients  in 
criminal  cases.  In  this  instance,  I  have  understood  that  after  the 
prisoner  was  in  the  dock,  he  walked  to  the  rail  and  said,  "  Well,  Sir, 
are  you  ready  to  make  a  strong  push  for  life  with  me  to-day  ?  "  The 
answer,  of  course,  was  in  the  affirmative.  "  Very  well,"  replied  Mr. 
C.,  "  we  will  make  it,"  and  turned  away  to  his  seat.  He  did  not 
speak  to  him  again. 


176  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS  CHOATE.         [CHAP.  VI. 

some  distance  from  the  bed,  her  throat  cut  to  the 
bone  from  ear  to  ear;  her  body  much  burnt;  a  con- 
siderable pool  of  blood  upon  the  bed ;  a  bowl  upon  a 
wash-stand  in  the  corner  of  the  room,  with  water  in 
it,  thick  with  blood  ;  marks  of  blood  upon  the  wash- 
stand,  and  the  lamp  on  the  mantel-piece  ;  the  bed- 
clothes piled  up  in  various  places  in  the  room  and  in 
the  entry,  and  partly  consumed  ;  a  bloody  razor  near 
the  body ;  also,  some  stockings,  a  cravat,  and  a  cane, 
belonging  to  Tirrell.  Besides  this,  a  fire  had  been 
kindled  in  an  adjoining  room  which  was  not  occupied 
that  night.  A  woman  in  the  next  house,  separated 
from  Lawrence's  by  a  brick  partition,  was  waked  that 
morning  by  a  screech  as  from  a  grown  child*;  but  on 
listening  heard  the  voice  of  a  woman ;  then  she  heard 
a  strangling  noise,  and  afterwards  a  fall,  and  then  a 
louder  noise. 

It  was  also  in  evidence  that  Tirrell  had  called  in 
haste,  very  early  on  that  Monday  morning,  at  a  livery- 
stable  near  Bowdoin  Square,  saying  that  "  he  had  got 
into  trouble ;  that  somebody  had  come  into  his  room 
and  tried  to  murder  him,"  and  he  wanted  a  vehicle 
and  driver  to  take  him  out  of  town.  These  were 
furnished,  and  he  was  driven  to  Weymouth.  He  also 
had  called  between  four  and  five  o'clock  at  the  house 
of  one  Head,  in  Alden  Court,  not  far  from  the  livery- 
stable,  and  asked  for  some  clothes  which  he  had  left 
there,  saying  that  he  was  going  to  Weymouth.  The 
officers  who  went  in  search  of  hfm  on  the  same  day 
did  not  succeed  in  finding  him  ;  but  some  months 
afterwards  he  was  arrested  in  New  Orleans,  and 
brought  to  Boston  for  trial.  The  public  were  ex- 
asperated by  the  atrocity  of  the  deed,  were  generally 


1845-1849.]  DEFENCE    OF   TIRRELL.  177 

convinced  of  his  guilt,  and  confident  that  he  would 
be  convicted.  The  crime  could  be  charged  upon  no 
one  else  ;  and  the  evidence  connected  him  with  it  so 
closely  that  there  seemed  to  be  no  chance  of  escape. 

Yet,  in  spite  of  the  almost  universal  prejudgment, 
and  of  a  chain  of  circumstantial  evidence  coiling 
about  the  prisoner  which  seemed  irrefragable,  his 
counsel,  by  throwing  doubt  upon  the  testimony  of 
the  government,  as  derived  in  part  from  witnesses  of 
infamous  character,  by  subtly  analyzing  what  was  in- 
disputable, and  demonstrating  its  consistency  with  a 
theory  of  innocence,  by  a  skilful  combination  of  evi- 
dence showing  the  possibility  of  suicide,  or  of  murder 
by  some  other  hand,  and  by  a  peculiar  line  of  defence 
so  singular  and  audacious  that  it  seemed  almost  to 
paralyze  the  prosecuting  officer,  were  able  to  con- 
vince the  jury,  and  I  believe  the  court  and  the  bar, 
that  he  could  not  be  legally  convicted.  It  appeared, 
for  the  defence,  that  Tirrell  was  subject  from  his 
youth  to  what  was  called  somnambulism ;  and  that 
while  in  this  state  he  made  strange  noises  —  a  sort  of 
groan  or  screech  —  loud  and  distressing ;  that  he  fre- 
quently rose  and  walked  in  his  sleep  ;  sometimes 
uttered  words  evidently  prompted  by  dreams  ;  and 
that  once  he  pulled  a  companion  with  whom  he  was 
sleeping  out  of  bed,  stood  over  him  and  cried  out, 
"  Start  that  leader !  start  that  leader,  or  I'll  cut  his 
throat !  "  and  then  walked  to  the  door  as  if  for  a 
knife  that  had  been  placed  over  the  latch  ;  that  on 
the  morning  of  the  asserted  murder,  when  he  went  to 
Head's  house,  he  appeared  so  strangely  as  to  frighten 
those  who  saw  him,  and  Head  took  hold  of  him  and 
shook  him,  when  he  seemed  to  wake  up  from  a  kind 

12 


178  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS   CHOATE.          [CHAP.  VI. 

of  stupor,  and  said,  "Sam,  how  came  I  here?"  It 
was  also  proved  that  when  informed  at  Weymouth 
that  he  was  charged  with  having  committed  the  mur- 
der, he  said  that  he  would  go  to  Boston  and  deliver 
himself  up,  but  was  dissuaded  by  his  brother-in-law, 
who  furnished  him  money  to  take  him  to  Montreal. 
It  was  further  proved  that  Mrs.  Bickford,  though 
beautiful  and  fascinating,  was  inclined  to  intemper- 
ance, was  passionate  and  wicked,  and  often  threatened 
to  take  her  own  life  ;  that  she  was  in  the  habit  of 
having  a  razor  with  her  for  the  purpose  of  shaving 
her  forehead  to  make  it  high  ;  and  once  had  bought  a 
dirk,  and  kept  it  concealed  in  her  room.  Physicians 
of  the  utmost  respectability  testified  that  the  wound 
in  the  neck  was  one  which  could  have  been  inflicted 
by  the  deceased  herself;  that  extraordinary  convul- 
sive movements  may  be  made  after  much  of  the  blood 
has  left  the  body,  while  still  some  remains  in  the 
head  ;  that  from  the  nature  of  the  instrument,  and  the 
physical  ability  of  the  deceased,  the  death  might  have 
been  suicide  ;  that  the  prisoner  appeared  evidently  to 
be  a  somnambulist,  or  sleep-walker,  and  that  in  this 
somnambulic  state  a  person  can  dress  himself,  can 
consistently  commit  a  homicide,  set  the  house  on  fire, 
and  run  out  into  the  street.  These  were  the  strong 
points  on  which  the  argument  of  Mr.  Choate  was 
based.  He  contended  that  no  motive  had  been  shown 
for  the  deed,  on  the  part  of  the  prisoner;  that  the 
evidence  did  not  contradict  the  idea  of  suicide  ;  that 
no  evidence  had  shown  that  a  third  party  had  not 
done  the  deed  ;  and  that  if  committed  by  the  prisoner, 
it  must  have  been  done  while  in  the  somnambulic 
state.  There  is  no  record  of  this  extraordinary  argu- 


1845-1849.]  DEFENCE   OF   TIRRELL.  179 

merit.  An  imperfect  sketch  is  found  in  some  of  the 
newspapers  of  the  da}r,  evidently  not  exact  and  accu- 
rate, and  of  course  conveying  no  adequate  idea  of  the 
variety  of  power  brought  to  bear  on  the  analysis  of 
the  evidence  and  its  application,  in  overthrowing  the 
theory  of  the  government. 

Mr.  Choate  often  said  that  he  meant  to  write  out 
the  argument,  the  materials  of  which  existed  ;  but  he 
never  carried  this  intention  into  effect,  and  a  diligent 
search  among  his  papers  has  failed  to  discover  any 
trace  of  his  brief.  But  in  the  imperfect  notices  to 
which  we  now  have  access,  we  see  evidence  not  only 
of  the  solemn  and  earnest  manner  which  the  case 
mainly  required,  arid  which  he  could  render  so  impres- 
sive, but  also  of  that  occasional  playful  extravagance 
and  witty  allusion  with  which  he  was  accustomed  to 
relieve  the  anxious  attention  of  the  jury.  Speaking  of 
a  witness  for  the  government,  called  out  of  place,  and 
after  the  defence  was  in,  he  said  :  "  Where  was  this 
tardy  and  belated  witness  that  he  comes  here  to  tell 
us  all  he  knows,  and  all  he  doesn't  know,  forty-eight 
hours  after  the  evidence  for  the  defence  is  closed  ?  Is 
the  case  so  obscure  that  he  had  never  heard  of  it? 
Was  he  ill,  or  in  custody  ?  Was  he  in  Europe,  Asia,  or 
Africa  ?  Was  he  on  the  Red  Sea,  or  the  Yellow  Sea,  or 
the  Black  Sea,  or  the  Mediterranean  Sea  ?  Was  he  at 
Land's  End,  or  John  o'  Groat?s  house  ?  Was  he  with 
Commissioners  on  our  north-eastern  boundary  drawing 
and  defining  that  much  vexed  boundary  line  ?  Or  was 
he  with  General  Taylor  and  his  army  at  Chihuahua,  or 
wherever  the  fleeting  south-western  boundary  line  of 
our  country  may  at  this  present  moment  be?  No, 
gentlemen,  he  was  at  none  of  these  places  (compara- 


180  MEMOIR   OF  RUFUS  CHOATE.        [CHAP.  VI. 

tively  easy  of  access),  but  —  and  I  would  call  your 
attention,  Mr.  Foreman,  to  the  fact,  and  urge  it  upon 
your  consideration  —  he  was  at  that  more  remote,  more 
inaccessible  region,  whence  so  few  travellers  return 
—  Roxbury." 

In  showing  a  possibility  that  the  crime  could  have 
been  committed  by  a  third  person,  he  denounced  with 
great  severity  and  sarcasm  the  reckless  and  depraved 
character  of  most  of  the  persons  who  appeared  as  wit- 
nesses, and  the  infamous  nature  of  the  house  "  not  al- 
ways so  very  hermetically  sealed."  In  accounting  for 
the  position  in  which  the  body  was  found,  he  asserted, 
what  the  apparent  diversity  of  testimony  seemed  to 
bear  out,  that  all  the  particulars  and  horrors  in  that 
room  on  the  morning  of  the  homicide,  had  not  been 
divulged,  and  that  Lawrence  himself  might  have 
snatched  the  body  from  the  burning  bed.  So  by  sug- 
gestion after  suggestion  he  threw  suspicion  over  the 
theories  of  the  government  or  diminished  the  credi- 
bility of  its  witnesses.  In  the  argument  for  somnam- 
bulism, he  produced  a  great  impression  by  a  quotation^ 
"  I  beg  leave  of  the  court  to  read,  as  illustrative  of  my 
point  of  argument  here,  a  passage  from  a  good  old 
book,  which  used  to  lie  on  the  shelves  of  our  good 
old  fathers  and  mothers,  and  which  they  were  wont 
devoutly  to  read.  This  old  book  is  '  Hervey's  Medita- 
tions,' and  I  have  borrowed  it  from  my  mother  to  read 
on  this  occasion.  *  Another  signal  instance  of  a  Provi- 
dence intent  upon  our  welfare  (says  that  writer)  is, 
that  we  are  preserved  safe  in  the  hours  of  slumber. 
...  .  At  these  moments  we  lie  open  to  innumerable 
perils  ;  perils  from  the  resistless  rage  of  flames  ;  perils 
from  the  insidious  artifices  of  thieves,  or  the  outrageous 


1846-1849.]  DEFENCE   OF   TIRRELL.  181 

violence  of  robbers  ;  perils  from  the  irregular  workings 
of  our  own  thoughts,  and  especially  from  the  incursions 
of  our  spiritual  enemy.  .  .  .  Will  the  candid  reader 
excuse  me,  if  I  add  a  short  story,  or  rather  a  matter  of 
fact,  suitable  to  the  preceding  remark?  Two  persons 
who  had  been  hunting  together  in  the  day  slept  to- 
gether the  following  night ;  one  of  them  was  renewing 
his  pursuit  in  his  dream,  and  having  run  the  whole 
circle  of  the  chase,  came  at  last  to  the  fall  of  the  stag. 
Upon  this  he  cries  out  with  determined  ardor,  "  I'll 
kill  him,  I'll  kill  him,"  and  immediately  feels  for  the 
knife  which  he  carried  in  his  pocket.  His  companion 
happening  to  be  awake,  and  observing  what  passed, 
leaped  from  the  bed.  Being  secure  from  danger,  and 
the  moon  shining  bright  into  the  room,  he  stood  to 
view  the  event,  when,  to  his  inexpressible  surprise,  the 
infatuated  sportsman  gave  several  deadly  stabs  in  the 
very  place  where,  a  moment  before,  the  throat  and 
the  life  of  his  friend  lay.  This  I  mention  as  a  proof, 
that  nothing  hinders  us,  even  from  being  assassins  of 
others  or  murderers  of  ourselves,  amid  the  mad  follies 
of  sleep,  only  the  preventing  care  of  our  Heavenly 
Father.  .  .  .  Oh !  the  unwearied  and  condescending 
goodness  of  our  Creator !  who  lulls  us  to  our  rest,  by 
bringing  on  the  silent  shades,  and  plants  his  own 
ever-watchful  eye  as  our  sentinel,  while  we  enjoy  the 
needful  repose.'  ' 

In  his  exordium,  alluding  to  the  certainty  that  death 
would  follow  a  verdict  of  guilty,  he  said,  "  Every  juror, 
when  he  puts  into  the  urn  the  verdict  of  'guilty,' 
writes  upon  it  also,  '  Let  him  die.' "  In  the  solemn 
and  beautiful  peroration,  he,  as  it  were,  summed  up 
his  appeal  in  these  words :  u  Under  the  iron  law  of 


182  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS   CHOATE.          [CHAP.  VI. 

old  Rome,  it  was  the  custom  to  bestow  a  civic  wreath 
on  him  who  should  save  the  life  of  a  citizen.  Do  your 
duty  this  day,  gentlemen,  and  you  too  may  deserve 
the  civic  crown." 

The  verdict  of  the  jury,  after  a  deliberation  of  less 
than  two  hours,  was  "  Not  guilty,"  —  a  verdict  which 
has  been  generally  acquiesced  in  by  the  legal  profes- 
sion as  the  only  one  which  the  evidence  would  war- 
rant, though  at  the  commencement  of  the  trial  few 
could  have  supposed  it  possible.  Mr.  Choate  suffered 
somewhat  in  the  general  estimation  from  the  argument 
drawn  from  somnambulism.  That,  however,  was  a 
suggestion  of  the  friends  of  the  accused,  accepted  by 
the  counsel,  and  employed  to  the  best  of  his  ability, 
like  any  other  capital  fact.  The  foreman  of  the  jury 
stated  that  the  question  of  somnambulism  did  not 
enter  into  the  consideration  of  the  jury,  and  had  not 
the  public  been  disappointed  and  almost  shocked  by 
the  result  of  the  trial,  we  should  probably  have  heard 
less  criticism  of  the  methods  of  the  advocate. 

As  this  case  must  take  rank  among  the  most  cele- 
brated in  our  country,  for  the  audacity  of  the  crime, 
for  the  pervading  anxiety  that  the  criminal  should  not 
escape,  as  well  as  for  the  power,  brilliancy,  and  unex- 
pected success  of  the  defence,  it  is  much  to  be  re- 
gretted that  no  good  report  of  it  was  ever  made.  No 
description,  or  statement  of  legal  points,  can  enable 
one  to  reproduce  the  scenes,  or  feel  the  power  by 
which  the  jury  were  brought  so  soon  to  their  verdict 
of  deliverance. 

Although  acquitted  on  the  charge  of  murder,  Tirrell 
was  still  under  an  indictment  for  arson.  On  this 
charge  he  was  tried  before  Judges  Shaw,  Wilde,  and 


1845-1849.]  DEFENCE   OF   TIRRELL.  183 

Dewey  in  January,  1847.  This  trial,  though  of  less 
celebrity  than  the  first,  was  hardly  less  important  or 
difficult.  Nor  was  the  ability  of  the  defence  less  con- 
spicuous. Every  one  noticed  the  hopeful  and  confi- 
dent tone  with  which  Mr.  Choate  opened  his  argument. 
He  moved  as  if  sure  of  success.  Having  thus,  as  by  a 
magnetic  influence,  removed  the  pressure  of  doubt  and 
apprehension,  he  proceeded  to  review  the  evidence, 
which  was  nearly  the  same  as  in  the  former  trial,  with 
the  addition  of  one  witness,  who  swore  that  she  was 
in  Lawrence's  house  that  night  and  saw  Tirrell  going 
out  between  four  and  five  o'clock  in  the  morning. 
This  new  testimony,  so  important  if  true,  damaged 
the  case  for  the  government  by  throwing  doubt  upon 
the  credibility  of  the  other  witnesses,  —  Lawrence 
having  before  sworn  that  no  one  was  in  his  house  that 
night  but  those  who  appeared  on  the  stand.  Mr. 
Choate  argued  that  there  was  no  proof  of  arson  at  all ; 
no  proof  of  an  intent  to  set  the  fire  ;  it  might  have 
been  done  by  Lawrence  himself  by  accident ;  if  done 
by  Tirrell  at  all,  it  might  have  been  done  in  a  sorn- 
nambulic  state.  He  had  no  motive  for  the  crime. 
"  He  was  fascinated  by  the  wiles  of  the  unhappy 
female  whose  death  was  so  awful ;  he  loved  her  with 
the  love  of  forty  thousand  brothers^  though,  alas  !  it  was 
not  as  pure  as  it  was  passionate."  He  argued  again 
that  Mrs.  Bickford  might  have  died  by  her  own  hand. 
"  If  the  jury,"  he  said,  "  are  governed  by  the  clamor 
raised  by  a  few  without  the  court-house,  I  must  look 
upon  the  prisoner  as  in  the  position  of  one  of  those 
unfortunates  on  board  the  ill-fated  '  Atlantic.'  He 
was  tossed  upon  the  waters,  —  struck  out  boldly  and 
strongly  in  the  wintry  surge,  was  washed  within 


184  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS  CHOATE.          [CHAP.  VL 

reach  of  the  ragged  beach,  and,  with  one  hand  upon 
the  crag,  was  offering  up  thanksgiving  for  his  safety, 
when  the  waves  overtook  him  and  he  was  swept  back 
to  death." 

"  There  is  a  day,  gentlemen,"  he  said  in  conclusion, 
*'  when  all  these  things  will  be  known.  When  the 
great  day  has  arrived  and  the  books  are  opened,  it 
will  then  be  known.  But,  gentlemen,  let  not  your 
decision  be  then  declared  in  the  face  of  the  world,  to 
be  a  judicial  murder." 

The  charge  to  the  jury  by  Chief  Justice  Shaw,  dis- 
crediting the  government  witnesses  on  account  of 
disreputable  characters  and  discrepancy  of  testimony, 
was  favorable  to  the  prisoner,  who  was  again  acquitted. 
It  was  wittily  said  afterwards  that  "  Tirrell  existed 
only  by  the  sufferance  of  Choate."  1 

In  July,  1847,  Mr.  Choate  argued,  at  Northampton, 
the  Oliver  Smith's  will  case.  Mr.  Smith  died  a  bach- 
elor at  nearly  eighty  years  of  age,  leaving  an  estate 
which  was  inventoried  at  $370,000.  This  he  disposed 
of  by  a  will  creating  a  variety  of  charities  which  many 
people  regarded  as  unwise  and  useless.  He  had  a 
number  of  relations  who  had  expected  generous  lega- 
cies. Some  of  them  were  needy ;  to  others  he  was 
under  obligations  of  kindness,  and  all  of  them  felt  that 
it  was  right  to  defeat  the  will,  if  it  could  legally  be 
done.  There  was  but  one  point  at  which  an  attack 
seemed  to  offer  any  chance  of  success.  One  of  the 
witnesses  to  the  will  had  lived  so  secluded  from 

1  A  short  time  after  the  conclusion  of  his  second  trial,  Tirrell  wrote 
to  Mr.  Choate  and  suggested  that  half  of  the  fee  should  be  returned, 
stating  that  as  his  innocence  of  the  crimes  charged  was  so  obvious  to 
two  juries,  his  counsel  had  been  paid  too  much  for  their  conduct  of 
such  simple  causes.  The  fee  paid  was,  it  is  believed,  §200 ! 


1845-1849.]  THE    SMITH   WILL   CASE.  185 

society,  and  had  conducted  himself  so  singularly,  that 
he  was  reputed  to  be  insane.  If  it  could  be  shown 
that  he  was  insane  at  the  time  the  will  was  made,  he 
would  of  course  be  incompetent  and  the  will  would 
fail.  But  the  fact  that  he  avoided  intercourse  with 
everybody  not  belonging  to  his  own  family  made  it 
difficult  to  obtain  evidence.  The  heirs-at-law  deter- 
mined, however,  to  appeal  from  the  decree  of  the 
Probate  Court  which  approved  the  will,  on  the  ground 
that  it  was  not  attested  by  three  competent  witnesses. 
For  the  heirs  appeared  Mr.  Choate,  R.  A.  Chapman, 
and  C.  P.  Huntington.  For  the  executors,  Daniel 
Webster,  C.  E.  Forbes,  and  Osmyn  Baker.  The 
court-room  was  crowded  as  densely  as  men  and 
women  could  sit  and  stand.  The  evidence  was  de- 
cisive that  a  year  before  the  will  was  made,  the  wit- 
ness was  regarded  by  the  Superintendent  of  the  State 
Asylum  as  insane,  but  at  the  period  in  question,  the 
evidence,  though  conflicting,  was  in  his  favor.  He 
himself  was  put  upon  the  stand,  and,  sustained  by  the 
presence  of  his  powerful  counsel,  gained  much  by  his 
appearance.  There  is  no  report  of  the  arguments  on 
this  interesting  trial,  but  I  am  able  to  give  the  im- 
pression made  upon  the  mind  of  an  able  lawyer  who 
was  present  and  indirectly  opposed  to  Mr.  Choate.1 

"  Though  I  took  no  active  part  in  the  trial  of  the 
'  Smith  Will  Case,'  I  was  engaged  somewhat  in  the 
antecedent  preparation,  and  thus  brought  nearer  than 
I  otherwise  might  have  been,  to  the  great  leaders  on 
that  occasion.  ...  I  had  never  till  then  seen  or  heard 
Mr.  Choate,  when  opposed  to  Mr.  Webster  before  the 
jury.  It  was  a  case,  moreover,  where,  at  the  start,  he 
1  Hon.  Charles  Delano. 


186  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS   CHOATE.         [CHAP.  VI 

must  have  felt  how  desperately  the  odds  were  against 
him  on  the  merits,  and  how  necessary  it  was  in  the 
presence  of  a  thronged  court-house  of  new  hearers, 
and  of  such  an  antagonist,  that  his  genius  should 
not  falter ;  and  surely  his  exhaustless  resource  never 
responded  more  prodigally  to  his  call.  He  spoke  for 
three  hours,  as,  it  seems  to  me,  never  man  spake. 
Mr.  Webster,  on  the  contrary,  after  a  certain  critical 
point  in  the  production  of  the  evidence  was  passed, 
felt  that  he  had  an  easy  case  and  a  sure  victory.  I 
thought  there  was  on  his  part  rather  an  affectation 
of  serenity  —  of  deliberateness  and  even  homeliness  of 
address  —  an  effort  at  self-suppression,  perhaps,  as  if 
studying  more  to  divert  the  jury  by  the  contrasted 
manner  of  the  men  before  them,  than  to  rival  his  adver- 
sary in  any  of  the  subtle  or  fascinating  arts  of  oratory. 
There  were  in  fact  only  two  or  three  passages  in  Mr. 
Webster's  speech  where  he  seemed  to  startle  the  be- 
wildered twelve  by  a  power  at  all  proportioned  to  his 
fame.  And  if  the  verdict  had  been  taken  before  the 
charge,  the  result  would  have  been  doubtful.  But 
the  dry  and  utterly  passionless  analysis  of  the  evidence 
by  old  Judge  Wilde  made  the  jury  soon  to  see  how 
narrowly  they,  had  escaped  finding  an  impulsive,  if 
not  a  foolish  verdict.  I  speak  of  course  with  the 
biases  of  a  retainer  against  Mr.  Choate's  side. 

"  You  will  observe  that  the  single  issue  on  the 
trial  was,  whether  the  third  witness  to  the  will  was, 
or  was  not,  of  sufficient  mental  soundness  at  the  time 
of  attestation.  This  witness  was  a  young  man  just 
out  of  college,  —  the  son  of  a  gentleman  of  intelli- 
gence, education,  and  of  the  highest  respectability, 
but  a  noted  hypochondriac,  and  the  grandson  of  that 


1845-1849.]  THE    SMITH   WILL   CASE.  187 

chief  of  hypochondriacs,   not  less   than   of  justices, 
Theophilus  Parsons,  of  the  Massachusetts  Bench. 

"  Mr.  Choate  converted  these  incidents  into  one 
of  his  finest  episodes.  He  gave  us  the  Chief  Justice 
in  his  most  exalted  intellectual  frame  ;  but  then  how 
ingeniously  did  he  darken  the  canvas  with  all  the 
horrors  of  that  great  man's  morbid  delusions  !  Surely 
the  jury  were  not  to  believe  that  a  malady  thus  fore- 
shadowed, when  added  to  and  aggravated  by  the 
channel  of  transmission  could  issue  in  any  thing  less 
than  necessary  and  utter  mental  overthrow  !  His 
theory  might  have  gained  assent,  had  it  not  been  that 
the  questionable  witness  was  himself  in  court.  His 
whole  demeanor  and  expression,  however,  were  those 
of  a  man  absorbed  in  melancholy ;  and  I  think  Mr. 
Choate's  side  had,  from  the  outset,  staked  their  ex- 
pectations upon  the  miscarriage  of  this  witness  on  the 
stand.  In  the  first  place,  would  the  party  setting  up 
the  will  dare  to  call  him  ?  If  not,  it  would  be  a 
confession  of  at  least  present  incompetency.  If  they 
should,  how  probable  that  so  consummate  a  cross- 
examiner  would  easily  reach  the  clew  to  his  distrac- 
tions, and  thus  topple  him  from  any  momentary 
self-possession.  It  was  in  taking  this  timid  and  re- 
luctant witness  into  his  own  hands,  and  bringing 
him  to  feel  that  he  was  testifying  under  the  shelter 
of  the  great  '  Defender '  himself,  that  Mr.  Webster 
figured  more  conspicuously  than  in  any  other  part  of 
the  case.  Thus  borne  up  and  through  a  long  direct 
examination,  he  braved  the  cross-examination  with 
perfect  composure.  This  was  the  critical  point  of 
the  case  to  which  I  have  before  alluded.  I  know  I 
am  spinning  out  this  note  to  a  merciless  length,  but 


188  MEMOIR  OF  KUFUS  CHOATE.         [CHAP.  VL 

my  apology  is,  that  reminiscences  of  Mr.  Choate  are 
among  the  most  delightful  memories  of  the  lawyer. 
Few  who  have  ever  known  him  can  dwell  upon  his 
death  otherwise  than  as  upon  a  personal  and  domestic 
affliction  ;  and  I  count  it  among  the  chief  felicities  of 
my  life,  not  merely  to  have  heard  him  at  the  Bar,  but 
to  have  seen  him  in  his  office,  had  a  glimpse  of  him  at 
home  among  his  books,  and  listened  to  him  at  his 
fireside." 

Mr.  Webster  and  Mr.  Choate  were  often  very 
playful  towards  each  other  during  this  trial,  as  they 
usually  were  when  engaged  together  in  the  same  case. 
"  My  position,"  said  one  of  the  junior  counsel,1  "hap- 
pened to  be  between  them ;  and  as  it  was  the  first 
time  I  had  ever  seen  them  opposed  to  each  other,  I 
was  not  a  careless  observer  of  either.  Mr.  Choate 
seemed  to  know  Mr.  Webster's  ways  thoroughly  ;  and 
I  was  sometimes  amused  by  the  shrewd  cautions  he 
gave  me.  Mr.  Webster  laughed  at  him  about  his 
handwriting,  telling  him  his  notes  were  imitations  of 
the  antediluvian  bird-tracks.  While  he  was  making 
his  argument,  Mr.  Webster  repeatedly  called  my 
attention  in  a  whisper  to  his  striking  passages.  He 
once  asked  me  in  respect  to  one  of  them,  '  How  do 
you  suppose  I  can  answer  that  ? '  And  once  when 
he  used  the  word  '  abnormal,'  Mr.  Webster  said, 
'  Didn't  I  tell  you  he  would  use  the  word  "  abnormal " 
before  he  got  through  ?  He  got  it  in  college,  and  it 
came  from  old  President  Wheelock.'  .  .  .  After  the 
trial  was  over,  Mr.  Webster  spoke  very  freely  of  Mr. 

1  Hon.  Reuben  A.  Chapman,  late  Chief  Justice  of  the  Supreme 
Court  of  Massachusetts. 


1845-1849.]  SPEECH   AT   BROOKLINE.  189 

Choate,  in  a  private  conversation  at  our  hotel,  and 
expressed  the  highest  admiration  of  him.  He  said  he 
often  listened  to  him  with  wonder ;  and  that  when 
he  argued  eases  at  Washington,  the  judges  of  the 
Supreme  Court  expressed  their  amazement  at  the 
brilliancy  and  power  of  his  oratory,  even  in  the  dis- 
cussion of  dry  legal  points.  He  said  they  had  often 
mentioned  it  to  him/' 

It  was  understood  that  in  this  case  the  jury  stood 
at  first,  ten  for  the  will,  and  two  against  it ;  on  the 
third  ballot  they  agreed. 

In  the  political  campaign  of  1848,  which  resulted 
in  the  election  of  Gen.  Taylor,  Mr.  Choate  took  a 
prominent  and  willing  part.  In  the  character  and 
life  of  Gen.  Taylor,  his  modesty  and  integrity,  his 
capacity  in  extraordinary  emergencies,  his  courage, 
his  unobtrusive  patriotism,  and  his  brilliant  victories, 
there  was  much  to  awaken  enthusiasm  as  well  as  to 
command  respect.  The  speeches  of  Mr.  Choate  before 
the  election  are  among  the  most  effective  he  ever  made 
in  this  style  of  ephemeral  political  oratory.  With  a 
sound  substratum  of  judicious  thought  and  argument, 
they  fairly  effervesce  with  wit  and  raillery. 

One  of  these  was  made  at  Brooldine.  "  He  had  been 
a  week,"  writes  a  gentleman  who  went  with  him  to 
the  place,  "  preparing  his  oration,  and  was  well-nigh 
used  up.  He  got  into  the  coach,  his  locks  dripping 
with  dissolved  camphor,  and  complained  of  a  raging 
headache.  He  clutched  his  temple  with  his  hand,  and 
leaned  his  head  on  my  shoulder,  to  see  if  he  could  not, 
by  reclining,  find  ease.  Just  as  we  touched  the  Mill 
Dam,  the  evening  moon  poured  her  level  rays  over 
the  beautiful  waters  of  the  Back  Bay,  and  filled  the 


190  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS   CHOATE.          [CHAP.  VI 

coach  and  atmosphere  with  dreamy  light.  The  scene 
instantly  revived  him.  He  put  his  head  out  of  the 
coach  window,  and  was  absorbed  with  tire  sweetness  of 
the  view.  The  sight  of  the  still  waters,  moonlighted, 
seemed  to  drive  away  his  pain,  and  he  struck  into  his 
old  rapture.  In  the  hall  where  he  spoke,  he  was  in 
his  very  best  mood  ;  both  mind  and  body  seeming  to 
be  on  wings.  .  .  .  As  we  rode  home  in  the  soft  moon- 
light, he  amazed  me  with  his  vast  power  of  thought. 
I  have  seen  men  stirred  with  passion  ;  men  eloquent ; 
men  profound  and  brilliant  in  conversation  ;  but  in 
the  whole  course  of  my  life  I  never  saw  a  man  more 
roused  than  was  he.  He  poured  out,  without  stopping, 
a  torrent  of  conversation  upon  history,  constitutional 
law,  philosophy,  poetiy ;  upon  Burke,  Plato,  Hamilton, 
the  future  of  the  Union.  No  other  word  would  explain 
his  style  but '  torrent '  or  '  cataract ; '  for  what  he  spoke 
in  that  hour  would  have  made  a  small  volume,  —  bril- 
liant and  full  of  philosophy  and  learning.  And  1  think 
that  I  never  realized  so  much  as  then  the  power  and 
unapproachableness  of  genius;  and  yet  the  man  — 
though  so  burning  up  and  absorbed  with  his  subjects 
of  conversation — was  true  to  his  gentle  instincts. 
His  daughter  lay  ill  at  home  ;  and  in  Summer  Street, 
at  a  long  distance  from  his  house  in  Winthrop  Place, 
he  bade  the  coachman  stop  to  allow  him  to  walk  to 
his  door,  so  that  the  noise  of  the  carriage  might  not 
disturb  her ;  insisting,  at  the  same  time,  against  my 
request  to  the  contrary,  that  the  coach  should  carry 
me  home,  though  I  lived  in  a  different  part  of  the 
city." 

Besides  this,  he  addressed  a  mass  meeting  at  Wor- 
cester, and  spoke  twice  at  Salem,  —  the  second  time 


184&-1849.]  TAYLOR   CLUB    OF   SALEM.  191 

on  the  presentation  of  a  banner  bearing  on  one  side 
the  inscription,  "  Presented  to  the  Taylor  Club  by 
the  Ladies  of  Salem,  Oct.  17, 1848,"  and  on  the  other, 
a  representation  of  Geri.  Taylor  giving  relief  to  a 
wounded  Mexican,  with  the  words  "  HONOR — PAT- 
RIOTISM —  HUMANITY."  The  assembly  was  brilliant 
even  for  that  city,  and  greeted  him  with  the  fervor 
of  friends.  The  applause  subsiding,  he  addressed 
the  chairman  of  the  Club  in  words  of  beauty  which 
foreshadow  what  became  afterwards  the  very  heart  of 
his  political  life. 

"  It  has  been  supposed,  Sir,  by  that  better  portion 
of  this  community,  the  ladies  of  Salem,  that  it  would 
not  be  unpleasing  to  the  association  of  Whigs,  over 
which  you  preside,  to  pause  for  an  hour  from  the 
austerer  duties  of  the  time,  and  to  be  recreated  by 
receiving  at  their  hands  an  expression  of  that  kind 
of  sympathy  which  man  needs  most,  and  a  tender  of 
that  kind  of  aid  which  helps  him  farthest,  longest,  and 
most  gratefully,  —  the  sympathy  and  approval  of  our 
mothers,  wives,  sisters,  daughters,  and  those,  all, whom 
most  we  love.  Under  that  impression  they  have  pre- 
pared this  banner,  and  have  requested  me  to  present 
it,  as  from  them,  to  you.  With  a  request  so  grateful, 
from  its  nature  and  source,  I  am  but  too  happy  to 
comply.  .  .  . 

"  I  give  you,  from  the  ladies  of  this  Salem,  —  the 
holy  and  beautiful  city  of  peace,  — a  banner  of  peace  ! 
Peace  has  her  victories,  however,  as  well  as  war.  I 
give  you,  then,  I  hope  and  believe,  the  banner  of  a 
victory  of  peace.  The  work  of  hands,  some  of  which 
you  doubtless  have  given  away  in  marriage  at  the 
altar,  —  the  work  of  hands,  for  which  many  altars 


192  MEMOIR   OF   RUFUS   CHOATE.         [CHAP.  VL 

might  contend  !  some  of  which  have  woven  the  more 
immortal  web  of  thought  and  recorded  speech,  mak- 
ing the  mind  of  Salem  as  renowned  as  its  beauty,  — 
the  work  of  such  hands,  embodying  their  general  and 
warm  appreciation  of  your  exertions,  and  their  joy  in 
your  prospects ;  conveying  at  once  the  assurance  of 
triumph  and  the  consolations  of  possible  defeat ;  — 
expressive  above  all  of  their  pure  and  considered 
moral  judgments  on  the  great  cause  and  the  Good 
Man!  —  the  moral  judgments  of  these,  whose  frown 
can  disappoint  the  proudest  aim,  whose  approbation 
prosper  not  less  than  ours;  —  the  work  of  such  hands, 
the  gift  of  such  hearts,  the  record  of  such  moral  sen- 
timents, the  symbol  of  so  many  sensibilities  and  so 
many  hopes,  you  will  prize  it  more  than  if  woven 
of  the  tints  of  a  summer  evening  sunset,  inscribed 
and  brought  down  to  earth  by  viewless  artists  of  the 
skies. 

"  Prizing  it  on  all  reasons.  I  think  you  are  too 
much  a  Whig  not  to  derive,  in  receiving  it,  a  pecu- 
liar pleasure  from  this  consideration,  that  it  expresses 
the  judgments  of  this  portion  of  the  community  on 
the  personal  qualities  and  character  of  Gen.  Taylor. 
It  expresses  their  judgments  in  favor  of  those  quali- 
ties and  that  character.  It  assures  us  that  we  are 
not  mistaken  in  the  man  himself.  It  assures  us  that 
we  are  right  in  believing  him  just,  incorrupt,  humane  ; 
of  large  heart,  as  well  as  clear  head,  —  whose  patri- 
otism knows  neither  Alleghanies  nor  Mississippi,  nor 
Rocky  Mountains,  embracing  our  whole  America,  — 
from  whom  twenty  thousand  Mexicans  could  not 
wrest  the  flag  of  his  country,  yet  whom  the  sight 
of  a  single  Mexican  soldier,  wounded  and  athirst 


1845-1849.]  TAYLOR   CLUB   OF   SALEM.  193 

at  his  feet,  melts,  in  a  moment,  to  the  kindness  of 
a  woman. 

"  I  do  not  suppose  that  I  enter  on  any  delicate 
or  debatable  region  of  social  philosophy,  sure  I  am 
that  I  concede  away  nothing  which  I  ought  to  assert 
for  our  sex,  when  I  say  that  the  collective  woman- 
hood of  a  people  like  our  own  seizes  with  matchless 
facility  and  certainty  on  the  moral  and  personal  pe- 
culiarities and  character  of  marked  and  conspicuous 
men,  and  that  we  may  very  wisely  address  ourselves 
to  her  to  learn  if  a  competitor  for  the  highest  honors 
may  boast,  and  has  revealed,  that  truly  noble  nature 
that  entitles  him  to  a  place  among  the  cherished  re- 
gards, a  niche  among  the  domestic  religions,  a  seat  at 
the  old  hearths,  a  home  in  the  hearts  of  a  nation. 

"We  talk  and  think  of  measures;  of  creeds  in 
politics  ;  of  availability  ;  of  strength  to  carry  the  vote 
of  Pennsylvania,  or  the  vote  of  Mississippi.  Through 
all  this  her  eye  seeks  the  moral,  prudential,  social, 
and  mental  character  of  the  man  himself,  —  and  she 
finds  it. 

"  All  the  glare  and  clamor  of  the  hundred  victories 
of  Napoleon,  —  all  the  prestige  of  that  unmatched 
intellect,  and  that  fortune  and  that  renown,  more 
than  of  the  children  of  earth — while  they  dazzled  the 
senses,  and  paled  the  cheek  of  manhood  —  could  not 
win  him  the  love  and  regards  of  the  matron  age  of 
France.  The  worship  of  Madame  de  Stael  was  the 
idiosyncrasy  of  an  idolatress  of  genius,  glory,  and 
power,  —  and  she  paid  it  alone. 

"  But  when  the  Father  of  his  Country,  our  Wash- 
ington, arrived,  on  his  way  to  the  seat  of  Gov- 
ernment, at  that  bridge  of  Trenton,  how  sure  and 

13 


194  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS   CHOATE.         [CHAP.  VI. 

heart-prompted  was  the  recognition,  by  the  mothers 
and  daughters  of  America,  of  that  greatness  which  is 
in  goodness,  and  of  the  daily  beauty  of  that  une- 
qualled life.  Those  flowers  with  which  they  strewed 
his  path,  while  they  sung  that  ode,  —  that  laurel  and 
evergreen  which  they  twined  on  arch  and  pillar  for 
him  to  pass  beneath,  had  not  found  the  needful  air 
and  light  and  soil  in  which  they  had  sprung  with 
a  surer  affinity  than  these  had  detected  and  acknowl- 
edged the  sublimity  of  the  virtues,  the  kindness, 
the  parental  love,  the  justice,  the  honesty,  the  large 
American  heart,  that  made  his  '  fame  whiter  than  it 
was  brilliant.' 

"  I  hear  then,  with  pleasure  not  to  be  expressed, 
this  testimony  —  from  such  a  source  —  to  the  candi- 
date of  our  choice.  I  appreciate  the  discernment  that 
has  contrived  this  device,  and  written  this  inscription. 
Right  and  fit  it  is,  that  such  praise  as  theirs  should 
commemorate  his  Honor,  who  has  done  so  much  to  fill 
the  measure  of  his  country's  glory,  —  his  Patriotism, 
on  whose  heart  her  love  has  burned  in  youth,  in  man- 
hood, ever  bright  as  on  an  altar,  —  his  Humanity,  in 
whose  regards  this  cup  of  water,  pressed  to  the  Jip 
of  the  wounded  prisoner,  is  a  sweeter  memory  than 
the  earthquake  voice  of  many  campaigns  of  victory ! 

"  There  are  three  more  traits  of  his  character, 
three  more  fruits  of  his  election,  which  the  authors 
of  this  Gift  discern  and  appreciate. 

"  They  expect,  first,  that  his  will  be  an  administra- 
tion of  honorable  peace.  The  experiences  of  war 
have  more  than  sated  him  of  that  form  of  duty  and 
that  source  of  fame.  From  many  a  bloody  day  and 
field  —  too  many  —  he  turns  to  win  a  victory  of  peace. 


1845-1849.]  TAYLOR   CLUB   OF    SALEM.  195 

He  seeks  to  set  on  that  brow  a  garland  —  amaran- 
thine and  blameless  —  compared  to  which  the  laurels 
that  a  Caesar  reaps  are  weeds.  .  .  . 

"  They  expect,  next,  that  his  administration  will 
be  illustrated  by  the  true  progress  of  America.  .  .  . 
They  expect  to  see  it  co-operating,  as  far  as  it  may, 
with  the  spirit  of  Humanity  in  achieving  the  utmost 
measure  of  good,  of  greatness,  of  amelioration,  of  hap- 
piness, of  which  philanthropy  and  patriotism  may  dare 
to  dream.  And  thus  they  look  to  an  administration 
of  progress.  But  progress,  in  their  view  and  in  yours, 
does  not  consist,  and  is  not  exemplified,  in  adding, 
every  three  or  four  years,  to  our  already  imperial  area, 
a  country  three  times  larger  than  all  France,  and 
leaving  it  a  desert ;  but  in  decorating  and  building  up 
what  we  have.  Their  idea  of  progress,  therefore,  and 
yours,  embraces  a  twofold  sentiment  and  a  twofold 
exertion:  first,  to  improve  the  land  and  water,  —  to 
bring  out  the  material  resources  of  America ;  and 
next,  to  improve  the  mind  and  heart  of  America ; 
diffusing  thus  over  her  giant  limbs  and  features  the 
glow  and  grace  of  moral  beauty  —  as  morning  spread 
upon  the  mountains.  .  .  . 

"  They  expect,  finally,  that  his  administration  will 
be  memorable  for  having  strengthened  and  bright- 
ened the  golden  chain  of  the  American  Union.  They 
expect  that,  under  the  sobriety  of  his  patriotism,  that 
U 111911  will  neither  be  sapped  by  the  expansion  of  our 
area,  until  identity,  nationality,  and  the  possibility 
of  all  cohesion  of  the  members  are  lost,  nor  rent 
asunder  by  the  desperate  and  profligate  device  of 
geographical  parties.  —  They  and  we,  Sir,  of  that 
Union,  deem  all  alike.  We,  too,  stand  by  the  ship- 


196  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS   CHOATE.         [CHAP.  VI. 

ping-articles  and  the  ship  the  whole  voyage  round. 
We  hold  that  no  increase  of  our  country's  area,  — 
although  we  hope  never  to  see  another  acre  added  to 
it ;  no  transfer  and  no  location  of  our  centre  of  na- 
tional power,  —  although  we  hope  never  to  see  it 
leave  the  place  where  now  it  is ;  no  accession  of  new 
stars  on  our  sky  —  were  they  to  come  in  constella- 
tions, thronging,  till  the  firmament  were  in  a  blaze ; 
that  none  of  these  things  should  have  power  to 
whisper  to  one  of  us  a  temptation  to  treason.  We 
go  for  the  Union  to  the  last  beat  of  the  pulse  and 
the  last  drop  of  blood.  We  know  and  feel  that 
there  —  there  —  in  that  endeared  name  —  beneath 
that  charmed  Flag  —  among  those  old  glorious 
graves,  in  that  ample  and  that  secure  renown,  — 
that  there  we  have  garnered  up  our  hearts  —  there 
we  must  either  live,  or  bear  no  life.  With  our  sisters 
of  the  Republic,  less  or  more,  we  would  live  and 
we  would  die,  — '  one  hope,  one  lot,  one  life,  one 
glory.'  " 

The  subsequent  election  of  General  Taylor  gave  to 
Mr.  Choate  the  greatest  delight.  It  seemed  to  him, 
indeed,  a  triumph  of  HONOR,  PATRIOTISM,  HUMAN- 
ITY. On  the  evening  when  the  intelligence  was  re- 
ceived that  made  the  matter  certain,  he  said  to  a 
friend  who  called  to  see  him :  "  Is  not  this  sweet  ? 
Is  it  not  sweet?  The  whole  country  seems  to  me 
a  garden  to-night,  from  Maine  to  New  Orleans.  It 
is  fragrant  all  over,  and  I  am  breathing  the  whole 
perfume." 

About  this  time  a  position  as  Professor  of  the  Law 
School  at  Cambridge  was  urged  upon  Mr.  Choate  in 
a  manner  so  sincere,  so  unusual,  and  so  honorable  to 


1845-1849.]          OFFER  OF  A   PROFESSORSHIP.  197 

all  parties,  that  I  am  especially  glad  to  be  permitted 
to  present  the  facts  in  the  words  of  one  who  knew 
them  familiarly,  —  the  late  Chief  Justice  Shaw. 

"After  the  reorganization  of  the  Law  School  at 
Harvard  College,  by  the  large  donation  of  Mr.  Dane, 
and  the  appointment  of  Mr.  Justice  Story  as  Dane 
Professor,  the  school  acquired  a  high  reputation 
throughout  the  United  States.  It  was  regarded  as  an 
institution  to  which  young  men  could  be  beneficially 
sent  from  every  part  of  the  country  to  be  thoroughly 
trained  in  the  general  principles  of  jurisprudence, 
and  the  elementary  doctrines  of  the  common  law, 
which  underlie  the  jurisprudence  of  all  the  States. 
This  reputation,  which  is  believed  to  be  well  founded, 
was  attributable,  in  a  great  measure,  to  the  peculiar 
qualifications,  and  to  the  efficient  services  of  Judge 
Story,  in  performing  the  duties  of  his  professorship. 
It  was  not  so  much  by  his  profound  and  exact  knowl- 
edge of  the  law  in  all  its  departments,  nor  by  his 
extensive  knowledge  of  books,  ancient  and  modern, 
that  the  students  were  benefited,  as  by  his  earnest 
and  almost  impetuous  eloquence,  the  fulness  and 
clearness  of  his  illustrations  with  which  he  awakened 
the  aspirations,  and  impressed  the  minds,  of  his  youth- 
ful hearers.  He  also  demonstrated  in  his  own  person 
how  much  may  be  accomplished  by  a  man  of  extraor- 
dinary talent  and  untiring  industry,  —  having  suc- 
cessfully and  faithfully  performed  the  duties  of  his 
professorship,  being  engaged  at  the  same  time  in  two 
other  departments  of  intellectual  labor,  that  of 
Judge  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  and 
author  of  elaborate  treatises  on  the  science  and  prac- 
tice of  law,  —  each  of  which  would  seem  sufficient  to 


198  MEMOIR  OF  RLTUS  CHOATE.         [CHAP.  VI. 

require  the  exclusive  attention  of  a  very  industrious 
man. 

"  Some  time  after  the  decease  of  Judge  Story, 
whether  immediately,  or  after  the  lapse  of  two  or  three 
years,  I  do  not  know,  but  as  near  as  I  recollect,  about 
the  year  1848,  the  attention  of  the  President  and  Fel- 
lows of  Harvard  College  was  turned  to  Mr.  Choate,  at 
once  an  eminent  jurist  and  an  advocate  conspicuous 
for  his  commanding  and  persuasive  eloquence,  whose 
services,  if  they  could  be  obtained,  would  render  him 
eminently  of  use  in  the  Dane  Law  School.  Indeed, 
he  was  too  prominent  a  public  man  to  be  overlooked, 
as  a  candidate  offering  powers  of  surpassing  fitness  for 
such  a  station.  But  it  was  never  supposed  by  the 
Corporation  that  the  comparatively  retired  position 
of  a  College  Professor,  and  the  ordinary,  though 
pretty  liberal  emoluments  of  such  an  office,  could  in- 
duce Mr.  Choate  to  renounce  all  the  honors  and  profits 
of  the  legal  profession  which  rightly  belonged  to  him 
as  Leader  of  the  Bar  in  every  department  of  forensic 
eloquence.  But  about  the  time  alluded  to,  Mr. 
Choate,  having  retired  from  political  life,  was  appar- 
ently devoting  himself  ardently  and  exclusively  to  the 
profession  of  the  law  as  a  jurist  and  advocate.  It  was 
thought  by  the  Corporation  that  a  scheme  might  be 
arranged,  if  it  suited  his  tastes  and  satisfied  his  expec- 
tations of  professional  eminence,  which  would  secure 
to  the  Law  School  of  the  University  the  benefit  of  his 
great  talents,  place  him  conspicuously  before  the 
whole  country,  and  afford  to  himself  the  immunities 
and  the  reputation  of  a  great  jurist  and  advocate. 

"  It  was  the  opinion  of  the  members  of  the  Corpora- 
tion, that  in  appointing  instructors  for  an  academical 


1845-1849.]  OFFER   OF   A   PROFESSORSHIP.  199 

institution,  designed  to  instruct  young  men  in  the 
science  of  jurisprudence,  and  in  part  to  fit  them  for 
actual  practice  in  the  administration  of  the  law  in 
courts  of  justice  (an  opinion,  I  believe,  which  they 
hold  in  common  with  many  who  have  most  reflected 
on  the  means  of  acquiring  a  legal  education),  it  is  not 
desirable  that  an  instructor  in  such  institution  should 
be  wholly  withdrawn  from  practice  in  courts.  Law  is 
an  art  as  well  as  a  science.  Whilst  it  has  its  founda- 
tion in  a  broad  and  comprehensive  morality,  and  in 
profound  and  exact  science,  to  be  adapted  to  actual 
use  in  controlling  and  regulating  the  concerns  of 
social  life,  it  must  have  its  artistic  skill  which  can  only 
be  acquired  by  habitual  practice  in  courts  of  justice. 
A  man  may  be  a  laborious  student,  have  an  inquiring 
and  discriminating  mind,  and  have  all  the  advantage 
which  a  library  of  the  best  books  can  afford,  and  yet, 
without  actual  attendance  on  courts,  and  the  means 
and  facilities  which  practice  affords,  he  would  be  little 
prepared  either  to  try  questions  of  fact,  or  argue 
questions  of  law.  The  instructor,  therefore,  who  to 
some  extent  maintains  his  familiarity  with  actual 
practice,  by  an  occasional  attendance  as  an  advocate 
in  courts  of  justice,  would  be  better  prepared  to  train 
the  studies  and  form  the  mental  habits  of  young  men 
designed  for  the  Bar. 

"  No  formal  application  was  made  to  Mr.  Choate, 
but  a  plan  was  informally  suggested  to  him,  with  the 
sanction  of  the  Corporation,  and  explained  in  conver- 
sation substantially  to  the  following  effect :  According 
to  the  plan  of  the  Law  School  of  the  College,  there 
are  two  terms  or  sessions  in  the  year,  of  about  twenty 
weeks  each,  with  vacations  intervening  of  about  six 


200  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS  CHOATE.         [CHAP.  VL 

weeks  each.  The  first  or  autumn  term  commences 
about  the  1st  of  September,  and  closes  near  the  middle 
of  January:  the  spring  term  commences  about  the 
1st  of  March,  and  continues  to  July.  The  exercises 
during  term-time  consist  of  daily  lectures  and  reci- 
tations, conducted  by  the  several  professors,  of  moot 
courts  for  the  discussion  of  questions  of  law,  delibera- 
tive oral  discussions,  in  the  nature  of  legislative  de- 
bates ;  some  written  exercises  also,  on  questions  and 
subjects  proposed,  make  up  the  course  of  training. 
Instructions  in  these  exercises  were  given  in  nearly 
equal  proportions  by  three  professors,  of  whom  the 
Dane  Professor  was  one.  The  moot  courts  and  de- 
liberative discussions  were  uniformly  presided  over 
by  one  of  the  professors. 

"  At  the  time  referred  to,  the  Supreme  Court  of 
the  United  States  commenced  their  annual  session  the 
first  week  in  December,  and  continued  to  about  the 
middle  of  March.  It  was  thought,  that  without  any 
perceptible  derangement  of  the  course  of  instruction 
in  the  Law  School,  the  duties  of  the  Dane  Professor- 
ship might  be  so  modified  as  to  enable  Mr.  Choate  to 
attend  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  at 
Washington  during  their  whole  term.  The  duties  of 
the  three  professors  are  not  such  as  to  require  the  at- 
tendance of  each  on  every  day  of  the  term ;  nor  is  it 
essential  that  the  different  departments  of  the  duties 
assigned  to  them  respectively  should  be  taken  up  in 
any  exact  order.  Then  by  an  arrangement  with  the 
other  professors,  the  subjects  especially  committed  to 
the  Dane  Professor,  and  his  proportion  of  all  other 
duties,  might  be  taken  up  and  finished  in  the  early 
part  of  the  autumn  term,  so  that  without  detriment  to 


1845-1849.]  OFFER   OF  A  PROFESSORSHIP.  201 

the  instruction,  he  might  leave  it  several  weeks  before 
its  termination,  and  in  like  manner  postpone  them  a 
few  weeks  at  the  commencement  of  the  spring  terra, 
so  that  with  the  six  weeks'  vacation  in  mid-winter, 
these  curtailments  from  the  two  terms  would  equal  in 
length  of  time  that  of  the  entire  session  of  the  Na- 
tional Supreme  Court. 

"  The  advantages  to  Mr.  Choate  seemed  obvious. 
When  it  was  previously  known  that  he  might  be  de- 
pended on  to  attend  at  the  entire  term  of  the  Supreme 
Court,  we  supposed  he  would  receive  a  retainer  in  a 
large  proportion  of  the  cases  which  would  go  up  from 
New  England,  and  in  many  important  causes  from  all 
the  other  States.  The  effect  of  this  practice  upon  the 
emoluments  of  his  profession  might  be  anticipated. 
No  case,  we  believe,  whether  in  law,  equity,  or  admi- 
ralty, can  reach  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States  until  the  case,  that  is,  a  statement  of  all  the 
facts  on  which  questions  may  arise,  is  reduced  to 
writing  in  some  form,  embraced  in  the  record. 

"  He  would  therefore  have  ample  opportunity,  with 
his  case  before  him,  and  with  the  use  of  the  best  Law 
Library  in  the  country,  and  the  assistance  of  a  class 
of  young  men  ever  eager  to  aid  in  seeking  and  apply- 
ing authorities,  and  proposing  cases  for  argument,  to 
avail  himself  of  all  the  leisure  desirable  at  his  own 
chambers,  to  study  his  cases  thoroughly,  and  prepare 
himself  for  his  arguments.  The  extent  to  which  such 
a  practice  with  such  means  would  soon  add  to  the 
solid  reputation  of  Mr.  Choate,  may  easily  be  con- 
ceived, especially  by  those  who  knew  the  strength  of 
his  intellectual  power,  and  the  keenness  of  his  faculty 
for  discrimination.  The  advantages  to  the  Law 


202  MEMOIR   OF  RUFUS   CHOATE.        [CHAP.  VI. 

School  contemplated  by  this  arrangement  were,  that 
Mr.  Choate  would  not  only  bring  to  the  institution  the 
persuasive  eloquence  and  the  profound  legal  learning 
which  he  then  possessed,  but,  by  an  habitual  practice 
in  one  of  the  highest  tribunals  in  the  world,  a  tribunal 
which  has  jurisdiction  of  more  important  public  and 
private  rights  than  any  other,  he  would  keep  up  with 
all  the  changes  of  the  times,  in  jurisprudence  and 
legislation,  and  bring  to  the  service  of  his  pupils  the 
products  of  a  constantly  growing  experience. 

"  But  this  plan,  in  the  judgment  of  the  Corporation, 
necessarily  involved  Mr.  Choate's  residence  at  Cam- 
bridge, and  an  entire  renunciation  of  all  jury  trials, 
and  all  other  practice  in  courts,  except  occasionally  a 
law  argument  before  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  State 
at  Boston  or  Cambridge,  each  being  within  a  short 
distance  of  his  home.  It  has  been  considered  impor- 
tant by  the  Corporation  that  the  Professors  of  the  Law 
School  should  reside  in  Cambridge,  to  afford  thereby 
the  benefit  of  their  aid  and  counsel  in  the  small  num- 
ber composing  the  Law  Faculty.  In  the  case  of  Mr. 
Choate,  it  was  considered  quite  indispensable  that  he 
should  reside  in  Cambridge,  on  account  of  the  influ- 
ence which  his  genial  manners,  his  habitual  presence, 
and  the  force  of  his  character  would  be  likely  to 
exert  over  the  young  men  drawn  from  every  part  of 
the  United  States  to  listen  to  his  instructions.  There 
was  another  consideration  leading,  in  Mr.  Choate's 
case,  to  the  same  result,  which  was,  that  the  breaking 
off  from  the  former  scenes  of  his  labors  and  triumphs, 
so  necessary  to  his  success  in  the  plan  proposed, 
would  be  more  effectually  accomplished  by  his  estab- 
lishing at  once  a  new  residence,  and  contracting  new 


1845-1849.]          THOUGHTS   ON   THE  PURITANS.  203 

habits.  Both  considerations  had  great  weight  in  in- 
ducing those  who  communicated  with  Mr.  Choate,  to 
urge  his  removal  to  Cambridge,  and  the  fixing  there 
of  his  future  residence,  as  essential  features  of  the 
arrangement. 

"  Mr.  Choate  listened  attentively  to  these  proposals 
and  discussed  them  freely ;  he  was  apparently  much 
pleased  with  the  brilliant  and  somewhat  attractive 
prospect  presented  to  him  by  this  overture.  He  did 
not  immediately  decline  the  offer,  but  proposed  to 
take  it  into  consideration.  Some  time  after  —  per- 
haps a  week  —  he  informed  me  that  he  could  not  ac- 
cede to  the  proposal.  He  did  not  state  to  me  his 
reasons,  or  if  he  did,  I  do  not  recollect  them." 

It  was  not  far  from  this  time,  also,  that  Mr.  Choate 
received  from  Governor  Briggs  the  honorable  offer  of 
a  seat  upon  the  bench  of  the  Supreme  Court.  It  was 
urged  upon  him  by  some  of  his  friends,  as  affording 
him  the  rest  which  he  seemed  to  need.  But  he  felt 
that  he  could  hardly  afford  to  take  it,  and,  after  due 
consideration,  respectfully  declined. 

In  March  of  this  year  — 1849  —  he  delivered  before 
the  Mercantile  Library  Association  the  closing  lecture 
of  the  winter  course.  The  first  two  volumes  of  Mr. 
Macaulay's  brilliant  history  had  been  but  recently 
published ;  and  availing  himself  of  the  newly  awak- 
ened interest,  he  chose  for  his  subject  one  always 
fresh  to  himself,  "  Thoughts  on  the  New-England 
Puritans."  A  short  extract,  comparing  the  public 
life  of  that  day  with  ours,  will  indicate  the  tone  and 
spirit  of  the  whole. 

"In  inspecting  a  little  more  closely  the  colonial 


204  MEMOIR   OF  RUFUS  CHOATE.         [CHAP.  VL 

period  of  1688,  than  heretofore  I  ever  had  done,  it 
has  seemed  to  me  that  the  life  of  an  able,  prominent, 
and  educated  man  of  that  day  in  Massachusetts  was 
a  life  of  a  great  deal  more  dignity,  interest,  and  enjoy- 
ment than  we  are  apt  to  imagine  ;  that  it  would  com- 
pare quite  advantageously  with  the  life  of  an  equally 
prominent,  able,  and  educated  man  in  Massachusetts 
now.  We  look  into  the  upper  life  of  Old  England  in 
1688,  stirred  by  the  scenes  —  kindled  and  lifted  up  by 
the  passions  of  a  great  action  —  the  dethronement  of 
a  king  ;  the  crowning  of  a  king  ;  the  vindication  and 
settlement  of  English  liberty ;  the  reform  of  the  Eng- 
lish constitution,  —  parent  of  more  reform  and  of 
progress  without  end, — and  we  are  dazzled.  Renown 
and  grace  are  there  ;  the  glories  of  the  Augustan 
age  of  English  letters,  just  dawning;  Newton  first 
unrolling  the  system  of  the  Universe ;  the  school- 
boy dreamings  of  Pope  and  Addison ;  the  beautiful 
eloquence  and  more  beautiful  public  character  of 
Somers  waiting  to  receive  that  exquisite  dedication 
of  the  Spectator ;  the  serene  and  fair  large  brow  of 
Marlborough,  on  which  the  laurels  of  Blenheim  and 
Malplaquet  had  not  yet  clustered.  We  turn  to  the 
Colonial  life  of  the  same  day,  and  it  seems  at  first  as 
if  it  could  not  have  been  borne  for  half  an  hour. 
What  a  time  of  small  things,  to  be  sure,  at  first  it 
appears  to  be.  The  sweet  pathos,  the  heroical  in- 
terest of  the  landing  at  Plymouth,  of  the  journey  to 
Charlestown,  are  gone  ;  the  grander  excitations  of  the 
age  of  Independence  are  not  yet  begun  to  be  felt ; 
hard  living ;  austere  manners ;  provincial  and  paro- 
chial insignificance  ;  stupendous  fabrics  of  witchcraft, 
and  disputes  of  grace  and  works ;  little  tormentings 


1845-1849.]  THOUGHTS   ON  THE  PUKITANS.  205 

of  Quakers  and  Antinomians ;  synods  to  build  plat- 
forms, on  which  nothing  would  stand ;  fast  days  for 
sins  which  there  was  no  possibility  to  commit,  and 
thanksgivings  for  mercies  never  received ;  these  at 
first  sight  seem  to  be  the  Massachusetts  life  of  that 
day.  But  look  a  little  closer.  Take  the  instance  of 
an  educated  public  man  of  Massachusetts  about  the 
year  1688,  —  a  governor;  a  magistrate  ;  an  alumnus 
of  Harvard  College,  learned  in  the  learning  of  his 
time ;  a  foremost  man,  —  and  trace  him  through  a  day 
of  his  life.  Observe  the  variety  and  dignity  of  his 
employments ;  the  weight  of  his  cares ;  the  range  of 
his  train  of  thoughts ;  his  resources  against  ennui  and 
satiety  ;  on  what  aliment  his  spiritual  and  intellectual 
nature  could  feed ;  appreciate  his  past,  his  present, 
and  his  future,  and  see  if  you  are  quite  sure  that  a 
man  of  equal  ability,  prominence,  and  learning  is  as 
high  or  as  happy  now. 

"  First,  last,  midst,  of  all  the  elements  of  interest 
in  the  life  of  such  a  man  was  this :  that  it  was,  in  a 
just  and  grand  sense,  a  public  life.  He  was  a  public 
man.  And  what  sort  of  a  public  man,  —  what  doing 
in  that  capacity  ?  This  exactly.  He  was,  he  felt 
himself  to  be  —  and  here  lay  the  felicity  of  his  lot,  — 
he  was  in  the  very  act  of  building  up  a  new  nation 
where  no  nation  was  before.  The  work  was  in  the 
very  process  of  doing  from  day  to  day,  from  hour  to 
hour.  Every  day  it  was  changing  its  form  under  his 
eye  and  under  his  hand.  Instead  of  being  born 
ignominiously  into  an  established  order  of  things,  a 
recognized  and  stable  State,  to  the  duties  of  mere 
conservation,  and  the  rewards  of  mere  enjoyment,  his 
function  he  felt  to  be  that  rarer,  more  heroical,  more 


206  MEMOIR  OF  RTJFUS   CHOATE.         [CHAP.  VI. 

epic  —  to  plant,  to  found,  to  construct  a  new  State 
upon  the  waste  of  earth.  He  felt  himself  to  be  of  the 
conditores  imperiorum.  Imperial  labors  were  his ; 
imperial  results  were  his.  Whether  the  State  (that 
grandest  of  the  works  of  man  —  grander  than  the 
Pyramids,  or  Iliads,  or  systems  of  the  Stars !)  — 
whether  the  State  should  last  a  year  or  a  thousand 
years,  —  whether  it  should  be  contracted  within  lines 
three  miles  north  of  the  Merrimack,  three  miles  south 
of  the  Charles,  and  a  little  east  of  the  Hudson,  or 
spread  to  the  head  waters  of  the  Aroostook,  and 
St.  John,  and  the  springs  of  the  Merrimack  among 
the  crystal  hills  of  New  England,  and  to  the  great  sea 
on  the  west ;  whether  a  Stuart  and  a  Papist  king  of 
England  should  grasp  its  charter,  or  the  bayonet  or 
tomahawk  of  French  or  Indians  quench  its  life ;  — 
whether  if  it  outlived,  as  Jeremy  Taylor  has  said, 
'  the  chances  of  a  child,'  it  should  grow  up  to  be  one 
day  a  pious,  learned,  well-ordered,  and  law-abiding 
Commonwealth;  a  freer  and  more  beautiful  England; 
a  less  tumultuary  and  not  less  tasteful  Athens  ;  a 
larger  and  more  tolerant  Geneva ;  or  a  school  of 
prophets  —  a  garden  of  God  —  a  praise  —  a  glory  ; 
all  this  seemed  to  such  a  man  as  I  have  described,  as 
he  awoke  in  the  morning,  to  depend  appreciably  and 
consciously  on  what  he  might  do  or  omit  to  do,  before 
he  laid  his  head  on  his  pillow  that  very  night.  Pub- 
lic life  in  Massachusetts  that  day  did  not  consist  in 
sending  or  being  sent  to  Congress  with  a  dozen  asso- 
ciates, to  be  voted  down  in  a  body  of  delegates  repre- 
senting half  of  North  America.  Still  less  was  it  a 
life  of  leisure  and  epicureanism.  This  man  of  whom 
I  speak,  within  the  compass  of  a  single  twenty-four 


1845-1849.]  THOUGHTS   ON  THE   PURITANS.  207 

hours,  might  have  to  correspond  with  Connecticut, 
Rhode  Island,  and  Plymouth  Colony,  and  the  Royal 
Government  of  New  Hampshire,  upon  the  subject  of 
boundary  lines,  —  the  boundary  lines  of  States,  as 
against  one  another  wholly  independent,  —  a  dignified 
and  historical  deliberation  ;  to  collate  and  to  draw 
practical  conclusions  from  all  manner  of  contradictory 
information  touching  movements  of  Indians  at  Casco 
Bay  and  the  Penobscot ;  to  confer  with  Sir  William 
Phipps  about  the  raising  of  troops  to  attack  Port 
Royal  or  Quebec ;  to  instruct  the  agent  of  the  Col- 
ony, who  was  to  sail  for  England  next  morning,  to 
watch  the  course  of  the  struggle  between  the  last  of 
the  Stuarts,  the  people  of  England,  and  the  Prince  of 
Orange,  or  to  meditate  his  report  from  London  ;  to 
draw  up  a  politic,  legal,  and  skilful  address  to  his 
king's  most  excellent  and  blessed  majesty,  to  show 
that  we  had  not  forfeited  the  life  of  the  charter  and 
the  birthright  of  English  souls ;  to  take  counsel  on 
the  state  of  the  free  schools,  the  university,  and  the 
law ;  to  communicate  with  some  learned  judge  on  the 
composition  of  our  decennial  twelve  tables  of  the  jur- 
isprudence of  liberty ;  to  communicate  with  learned 
divines  —  the  ardent  Mathers,  father  and  son,  and 
with  Brattle  —  on  the  ecclesiastical  well-being  of  the 
State,  the  aspects  of  Papacy  and  Episcopacy,  the  agen- 
cies of  the  invisible  world,  the  crises  of  Congregation- 
alism, the  backslidings  of  faith  for  life,  and  all  those 
wayward  tendencies  of  opinion,  which,  with  fear  of 
change,  perplexed  the  church. 

"  Compare  with  the  life  of  such  an  one  the  life  of  a 
Massachusetts  public  man  of  this  day.  How  crowded 
that  was ;  how  burthened  with  individual  responsibil- 


208  MEMOIR   OF  RUFUS   CHOATE.         (CHAP.  VL 

ity ;  how  oppressed  with  large  interests ;  how  far  more 
palpable  and  real  the  influence  ;  how  much  higher 
and  wider  the  topics ;  how  far  grander  the  cares ! 
Why,  take  the  highest  and  best  Massachusetts  public 
men  of  all  among  us.  Take  his  Excellency.  What 
has  he  to  do  with  French  at  Port  Royal,  or  Indians  at 
Saco,  or  Dutch  on  the  Hudson?  How  much  sleep 
does  he  lose  from  fear  that  the  next  steamer  will  bring 
news  that  the  Crown  of  England  has  repealed  the 
Constitution  of  Massachusetts?  When  will  he  lie 
awake  at  dead  of  night  to  see  Cotton  Mather  drawing 
his  curtain  —  pale  as  the  ghost  of  Banquo  —  to  tell 
him  that  witchcraft  is  celebrating  pale  Hecate's  offer- 
ings at  Danvers  ?  Where  is  it  now  —  the  grand, 
peculiar  charm  —  that  belongs  ever  to  the  era  and  the 
act,  of  the  planting  and  infancy  of  a  State?  Where  — 
where  now  —  those  tears  of  bearded  men ;  the  faded 
cheek  ;  the  throbbing  heart ;  the  brow  all  furrowed 
with  imperial  lines  of  policy  and  care, — that  give  the 
seed  to  earth,  whose  harvest  shall  be  reaped  when 
some  generations  are  come  and  gone  ?  " 

During  the  summer  of  the  same  year,  the  Phillips 
Will  Case,  as  it  was  called,  was  argued  by  him  at  Ips- 
wich. It  involved  the  disposal  of  nearly  a  million  of 
dollars.  The  will  was  dated  at  Nahant,  where  Mr. 
Phillips  had  his  residence,  Oct.  9,  1847.  He  soon 
after  left  for  Europe,  and  the  next  year,  having 
returned,  put  an  end  to  his  own  life  in  Brattlebor- 
ough,  Vt.,  June  28,  1848.  It  was  found  on  examina- 
tion that  after  giving  considerable  sums  to  his  mother 
and  sisters,  a  hundred  thousand  dollars  to  the  Observa- 
tory in  Cambridge,  and  several  minor  bequests  to  his 
friends,  he  left  the  bulk  of  his  property  to  a  relative, 


1845-1849.]          THE   PHILLIPS   WILL  CASE.  209 

who  was  already  prospectively  very  wealthy.  The 
heirs-at-law  disputed  the  will  on  the  grounds  —  1st,  of 
the  insanity  or  imbecility  of  the  testator ;  2d,  that  an 
undue  influence  had  been  exercised  over  him  ;  and 
3d,  that  the  will  was  void  because  executed  on  a 
Sunday.  It  is  seldom  that  an  array  of  counsel  of  such 
eminent  ability  is  seen  at  once  in  court.  For  the 
heirs-at-law  appeared  W.  H.  Gardiner,  Joel  Parker, 
and  Sidney  Bartlett.  For  the  executors,  Rufus 
Choate,  Benj.  R.  Curtis,  and  Otis  P.  Lord.  After  a 
searching  examination  of  witnesses  and  documents, 
protracted  through  a  whole  week,  the  arguments 
were  made  by  Mr.  Gardiner  on  one  side  and  Mr. 
Choate  on  the  other.  That  it  was  one  of  Mr.  Choate's 
ablest  and  most  conclusive  arguments,  conceived  in 
his  best  vein,  and  conducted  with  consummate  skill 
and  eloquence,  is  the  testimony  of  all  who  were  pres- 
ent. To  those  who  never  heard  him  before,  it  was  a 
new  revelation  of  the  scope  and  power  of  legal  elo- 
quence. Unfortunately  it  perished  with  the  breath 
that  uttered  it.  Nothing  remains  to  attest  its  ability 
but  its  success.  The  decision  of  the  jury  on  every 
point  was  in  favor  of  the  will. 

Soon  after  leaving  the  Senate,  Mr.  Choate  entered 
upon  a  course  of  careful  study  for  the  purpose  of  a 
more  thorough  self-discipline.  He  began  to  translate 
Thucydides,  Demosthenes,  and  Tacitus.  He  marked 
out  a  course  of  systematic  reading,  and  resolutely 
rescued  hours  of  daily  labor  from  sleep,  from  society, 
from  recreation.  Under  the  date  of  October,  1845,  he 
says,  "  I  am  reading,  meditating,  and  translating  the 
first  of  Greek  historians,  Thucydides.  I  study  the 
Greek  critically  in  Passow,  Bloomfield,  and  Arnold, 

14 


210  MEMOIR   OF   RUFUS  CHOATE.         [CHAP.  VI. 

and  the  history  in  Mitford,  Thirl  wall,  Wachsmuth, 
Hermann,  &c.,  &c.,  and  translate  faithfully,  yet  with 
some  attention  to  English  words  and  construction ; 
and  my  purpose  is  to  study  deeply  the  Greece  of  the 
age  of  Pericles,  and  all  its  warnings  to  the  liberty  and 
the  anti-unionisms  of  my  own  country  and  time." 

Several  fragments  of  journals,  and  sketches  of 
promised  labor,  without  dates,  seem  referable  to  the 
years  between  1845  and  1850,  and  may  be  inserted 
here.  They  show  the  diligent  efforts  at  self-culture 
in  the  midst  of  entangling  and  exhausting  labors. 

"  VACATIONS.  —  PRIVATE.  —  HINTS  FOR  MYSELF. 

"  It  is  plain  that  if  I  am  to  do  aught  beyond  the  mere 
drudgery  of  my  profession,  for  profit  of  others  or  of  myself; 
if  I  am  to  ripen  and  to  produce  any  fruit  of  study,  and  to 
construct  any  image  or  memorial  of  my  mind  and  thoughts, 
it  must  be  done  or  be  begun  quickly.  To  this  I  have  ad- 
monition in  all  things.  High  time  —  if  not  too  late  —  it  is  to 
choose  between  the  two  alternatives  —  to  amuse  —  scarcely 
amuse,  (for  how  sad  and  ennuyant  is  mere  desultory  read- 
ing !)  such  moments  of  leisure  as  business  leaves  me,  in  vari- 
ous random  reading  of  good  books,  or  to  gather  up  these 
moments,  consolidate  and  mould  them  into  something  worthy 
of  myself,  which  may  do  good  where  I  am  not  known,  and 
live  when  I  shall  have  ceased  to  live  —  a  thoughtful  and 
soothing  and  rich  printed  page.  Thus  far  —  almost  to  the 
Aristotelian  term  of  utmost  mental  maturity  —  I  have  squan- 
dered these  moments  away.  They  have  gone  —  not  in 
pleasure,  nor  the  pursuit  of  gain,  nor  in  the  trivialities  of 
society  —  but  in  desultory  reading,  mainly  of  approved 
authors  ;  often,  much,  of  the  grandest  of  the  children  of 
Light  —  but  reading  without  method  and  without  results. 
No  doubt  taste  has  been  improved,  sentiments  enlarged, 
language  heightened,  and  many  of  the  effects  —  inevitable, 
insensible,  and  abiding  of  liberal  culture,  impressed  on  the 
spirit.  But  for  all  this,  who  is  better  ?  Of  all  this,  who  sees 
the  proofs  ?  How  selfish  and  how  narrow  the  couch  of  these 
gratifications !  How  idle  the  strenuousness  of  daily  labor ! 


1845-1849.]  FRAGMENTARY   JOURNAL.  211 

How  instantly  the  air  will  close  on  this  arrowy  path  !  How 
sad,  how  contemptible,  that  no  more  should  be  left  of  such  a 
life,  than  of  the  commonplace  and  vacant  and  satisfied,  on 
this  side  and  that !  I  have  been  under  the  influence  of  such 
thoughts,  meditating  the  choice  of  the  alternative.  I  would 
arrest  these  moments,  accumulate  them,  transform  them  into 
days  and  years  of  remembrance !  To  this  end,  I  design  to 
compose  a  collection  of  papers  which  I  will  call  vacations. 
These  shall  embody  the  studies  and  thoughts  of  my  fitful, 
fragmentary  leisure.  They  shall  be  most  slowly  and  care- 
fully written  —  with  research  of  authors,  with  meditation, 
with  great  attention  to  the  style  —  yet  essay-like,  various,  and 
free  as  epistles.  I  call  them  vacations,  to  intimate  that  they 
are  the  fruits  of  moments  withdrawn  from  the  main  of  life's 
idle  business,  and  the  performances  of  a  mind,  whose  chief 
energies  are  otherwise  exercised.  The  subjects  are  to  be  so 
various  as  to  include  all  things  of  which  I  read  or  think  con 
amore,  and  they  are  to  be  tasks,  too,  for  reviving,  re-arrang- 
ing, and  increasing  the  acquisitions  I  have  made.  My  first 
business  is  to  prepare  an  introductory  and  explanatory  paper 
for  the  public,  —  as  this  is  for  myself,  —  and  then  to  settle 
something  like  a  course  of  the  subjects  themselves.  Such  a 
course  it  will  be  indispensable  to  prescribe,  nearly  impossible 
to  adhere  to.  Single  topics  are  more  easily  indicated.  The 
Greek  orators  before  Lysias  and  Isocrates,  —  Demosthenes, 
jEschines,  Thucydides,  the  Odyssey,  Tacitus,  Juvenal,  Pope 
—  supply  them  at  once  ;  Rhetoric,  conservatism  of  the  bar, 
my  unpublished  orations,  the  times,  politics,  reminiscences  — 
suggest  others  —  Cicero  and  Burke,  Tiberius  in  Tacitus,  and 
Suetonius,  and  De  Quincey,  —  but  why  enumerate  ?  The 
literature  of  this  century,  to  the  death  of  Scott  or  Moore  — 
so  grand,  rich,  and  passionate."  — 

[The  succeeding  sheets  are  missing.  Some  of  these  sub- 
jects he  wrought  into  his  lectures.] 

"I  have  at  last  hit  upon  a  plan  for  the  thorough  study  of 
the  history  of  the  Constitution,  which  I  hope  may  advance 
all  my  objects,  —  the  thorough  acquisition  of  the  facts  ;  the 
vivid  reproduction  of  the  eventful  age ;  the  rhetorical  expres- 
sion and  exhibition  of  the  whole.  I  shall  compose  a  succes- 
sion of  speeches,  supposed  to  have  been  made  in  Congress,  in 
conventions,  or  in  assemblies  of  the  people,  in  the  period  of 


212  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS   CHOATE.         [CHAP.  VI. 

from  1783  to  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution,  in  which  shall 
be  embodied  the  facts,  the  reasonings,  and  the  whole  scheme 
of  opinions  and  of  policy,  of  the  time.  I  select  a  speaker  and 
a  subject ;  and  I  make  his  discussion,  or  the  discussion  of  his 
antagonist,  revive  and  paint  the  actual  political  day  on  which 
he  speaks.  My  first  subject  is  the  resolution  of  April,  1783, 
—  recommending  to  the  States  to  vest  in  Congress  the  power 
of  imposing  certain  duties  for  raising  revenue  to  pay  the  debt 
of  the  war.  To  prepare  for  this  debate  I  read  Pitkin,  Mar- 
shall, Life  of  Hamilton,  and  above  all,  Washington's  Address 
to  the  People  of  8  June,  1783,  and  that  of  the  Committee  of 
Congress. 

"Mr.  Ellsworth  or  Mr.  Madison  or  Mr.  Hamilton  may 
have  introduced  the  measure  ;  and  a  review  of  the  past,  a 
survey  of  the  present,  a  glance  toward  the  future,  would  be 
unavoidably  interwoven  with  the  mere  business-like  and 
necessary  exposition  of  the  proposition  itself." 

It  is  evident  from  the  above  fragment,  that  Mr. 
Choate  cherished  the  purpose  of  embodying  his  reflec- 
tions on  various  subjects  in  a  series  of  papers.  To 
this  he  sometimes  jocosely  referred  in  conversation 
with  other  members  of  the  bar.  He  once  told  Judge 
Warren  that  he  was  going  to  write  a  book.  "  Ah," 
said  the  Judge,  "  what  is  it  to  be  ?  "  —  "  Well,"  re- 
plied Mr.  Choate,  "  I've  got  as  far  as  the  title-page 
and  a  motto."  —  "Where  are  they?"  —  "The  subject 
is  'The  Lawyer's  Vacation,'  the  motto  —  I've  for- 
gotten. But  I  shall  show  that  the  lawyer's  vacation 
is  the  space  between  the  question  put  to  a  witness 
and  his  answer  !  " 

The  following  seems  to  be  an  essay  towards  a  title 
and  introduction  to  some  such  work :  — 


1845-1849.1  "  VACATIONS."  213 

"  VACATIONS. 

"BY   A   MEMBER   OP   THE   BAR   OF   MASSACHUSETTS. 

"Paululum  itinere  decedere,  non  intempestivis  amoenitatibus,  adrao- 
nemur.  —  PLINY. 

"ADVERTISEMENT. 

"  The  vacations  of  the  Massachusetts,  and  I  suppose  of  the 
general  American  Bar,  are  not  certain  stated  and  consider- 
able seasons  in  which  a  lawyer  may  turn  his  office-key,  and 
ramble  away,  without  reclamation  or  reproval,  to  lake  and 
prairie,  and  '  beyond  the  diminished  sea ; '  or  resign  himself, 
with  an  absolute  abandonment  of  successive  weeks,  to  those 
thoughts  and  studies  of  an  higher  mood,  by  which  soul  and 
body  might  be  sooner  and  longer  rested  and  recreated.  They 
are,  rather,  divers  infinitely  minute  particles  of  time,  —  half- 
hours  before  breakfast,  or  after  dinner,  Saturdays  at  evening, 
intervals  between  the  going  out  of  one  client  and  the  coming 
in  of  another;  blessed,  rare,  fortuitous  days,  when  no  Court 
sits,  nor  Referee,  nor  Master  in  Chancery,  nor  Commissioner, 
nor  Judge  at  Chambers,  nor  Legislative  Committee,  —  these 
snatches  and  interstitial  spaces,  moments,  literal  and  fleet,  are 
our  vacations. 

"  How  difficult  it  is  to  arrest  these  moments,  to  aggregate 
them,  to  till  them  as  it  were,  to  make  them  day  by  day  ex- 
tend our  knowledge,  refine  our  tastes,  accomplish  our  whole 
culture  !  —  how  much  more  difficult  to  turn  them  to  any  large 
account  in  the  way  of  scholarship  and  authorship,  '  sowing 
them,'  as  Jeremy  Taylor  has  said,  '  with  that  which  shall  grow 
up  to  crowns  and  sceptres,'  —  all  members  of  the  profession 
of  the  law  have  experienced,  and  all  others  may  well  under- 
stand !  That  they  afford  time  enough,  if  wisely  used,  for 
'  the  exercises  and  direct  actions  of  religion,'  for  much  domes- 
tic and  social  enjoyment,  for  many  forms  of  tasteful  amuse- 
ments, for  some  desultory  reading,  and  much  undetected  and 
unproductive  reverie,  I  gratefully  acknowledge.  But  for 
studies  out  of  the  law,  —  studies,  properly  so  described,  either 
recondite  or  elegant,  and  still  more  for  the  habit  and  the 
faculty  of  literary  writing,  — -  they  are  too  brief  and  too  inter- 
rupted ;  gifts,  too  often,  to  a  spirit  and  a  frame  too  much 
worn  or  depressed  or  occupied,  to  employ  or  appreciate 
them. 


214  MEMOIK   OF  RUFUS   CHOATE.        [CHAP.  VL 

"  It  was  in  such  moments,  gathered  of  many  years,  that 
these  papers  were  written.  They  are  fruits,  often,  or  always, 
'harsh  and  crude,'  of  a  lawyer's  vacations.  They  stand  in 
need,  therefore,  of  every  degree  of  indulgence ;  and  I  think  I 
could  hardly  have  allowed  myself  to  produce  them  at  all,  if  I 
had  not  been  willing  that  others  should  know  that  the  time 
which  I  have  withheld  from  society,  from  the  pursuit  of 
wealth,  from  pleasure,  and  latterly  from  public  affairs,  has 
not  been  idle  or  misspent ;  non  otiosa  vita  ;  nee  desidiosa  oc- 
cupatio." 


1850.]  CHANGE   OF  PARTNERSHIP.  215 


CHAPTER  VII. 

1850. 

Change  of '  Partnership  —  Voyage  to  Europe  —  Letters  to  Mrs. 
Choate  —  Journal. 

IN  1849  Mr.  Choate  terminated  his  professional  con- 
nection with  B.  F.  Crowninshield,  Esq.  It  had  lasted 
for  fifteen  years,  with  a  confidence  so  entire  and 
unbroken,  that  during  the  whole  time  no  formal 
division  of  the  income  of  the  office  was  ever  made, 
nor  had  there  arisen  between  them,  on  this  account, 
the  slightest  disagreement.  He  now  took  into  part- 
nership his  son-in-law,  Joseph  M.  Bell,  Esq.,  and  re- 
moved from  Court  Street  to  7£  Tremont  Row,  a 
quarter  then  nearly  unoccupied  by  members  of  the 
profession.  Here  he  remained  till  the  autumn  of 
1856,  when  he  again  removed  to  more  commodious 
rooms  in  a  new  building  in  Court  Street. 

In  the  summer  of  1850,  he  gratified  a  long-cherished 
wish  by  a  voyage  to  Europe.  So  constant  had  been 
his  occupation,  so  unremitting  his  devotion  to  the 
law,  hardly  allowing  him  a  week's  vacation  during 
the  year,  that,  at  last,  the  strain  became  too  great, 
and  he  felt  compelled  to  take  a  longer  rest  than 
would  be  possible  at  home.  He  sailed  in  the  Steam- 
ship Canada  on  the  29th  of  June,  in  company  with 
his  brother-in-law,  Hon.  Joseph  Bell.  They  visited 
England,  Belgium,  France,  a  part  of  Germany  and 


216  MEMOIR   OF  RTJFUS    CHOATE.        [CHAP.  VII. 

Switzerland,  and  returned  home  in  September.  For- 
tunately, he  kept  a  brief  journal,  which,  with  a  few 
letters,  will  indicate  the  objects  which  proved  most 
attractive  to  him.  He  was  kindly  received  in  Eng- 
land by  those  to  whom  he  had  letters,  and,  during 
the  few  weeks  he  was  in  the  country,  saw  as  much  as 
possible  of  English  life,  and  of  interesting  places. 

To  MRS.  CHOATE. 

"June  30,  1850.    12  o'clock.    At  Sea. 

"  DEAR  H.,  —  We  have  had  a  very  pleasant  run  so  far, 
and  are  to  reach  Halifax  at  night,  —  say  six  to  ten.  I  do 
not  suppose  I  have  been  sea-sick,  but  I  have  had  that  head- 
ache and  sickness  which  usually  follows  a  very  hard  trial,  and 
have  just  got  out  of  my  berth,  to  which  I  had  retreated  igno- 
miniously  from  the  breakfast-table.  After  I  get  wholly  over 
this,  I  hope  I  shall  be  better  than  ever.  So  far  I  don't  regret 
coming,  but  oh  !  take  care  of  every  thing,  — .the  house,  —  the 
books,  —  your  own  health  and  happiness.  .  .  .  To  tell  the 
truth,  I  am  scarcely  able  to  write  more,  but  with  best,  best, 
best  love,  I  go  again  to  my  berth.  Mr.  Bell  is  writing  at 
my  side,  and  grows  better  every  moment.  This  letter  I  shall 
mail  at  Halifax,  —  where  I  shall  not  land,  however,  as  we 
touch  in  the  night.  God  bless  you  all.  Farewell  again." 


To  MRS.  CHOATE. 

"  LIVERPOOL,  7th  and  8th  July,  1850. 

"DEAR  H.  AND  DEAR  CHILDREN,  —  We  arrived  here 
yesterday,  7th  July,  Sunday  morning,  at  about  eight  o'clock, 
and  I  am  quite  comfortably  set  down  at  the  Waterloo  Hotel, 
—  a  stranger  in  a  strange  land.  Yesterday,  Sunday,  after 
breakfasting  upon  honey,  delicious  strawberries,  &c.,  &c.,  I 
went  to  church,  —  St.  George's,  —  and  heard  the  best  church 
service  music  I  ever  heard,  and  then  tried  to  rest.  To-day 
Mr.  Bell  and  I  have  been  running  all  over  Liverpool,  and 
to-morrow  we  go  to  London.  Most  of  the  passage  over  I 
was  very  sick.  Two  days  I  lay  still  in  my  berth ;  the  rest  of 
the  time  I  crept  about,  —  rather  low.  But  the  whole  voyage 


I860.]  LETTERS   TO  MRS.  CHOATE.  217 

was  very  pleasant  and  very  prosperous,  and,  I  suppose,  at  no 
period  dangerous.  One  vast  and  grim  iceberg  we  saw, — 
larger  than  the  whole  block  of  buildings  composing  Park 
Street,  —  and  I  saw  the  spouting  of  whales,  but  no  whales 
themselves.  The  transition,  yesterday,  from  a  rocking  ship 
and  all  the  smells  of  the  sea  to  the  hotel,  was  sweet  indeed. 
I  don't  know  how  I  shall  like  England,  —  and  how  I  shall 
stay  till  October.  Sometimes  my  heart  droops.  But  our 
course  will  be  this,  —  to  stay  now  a  fortnight  in  London,  then 
go  a  fortnight  to  the  Continent,  and  then  spend  the  whole  of 
the  rest  of  our  time  in  England  and  Scotland.  More  of  all 
this  we  shall  learn  to-morrow,  or  soon,  at  London.  .  .  .  My 
heart  swells  to  think  of  you  all,  and  of  my  dear,  poor  library. 
Take  good  care  of  that.  Write  every  thing  to  me.  .  .  .  My 
heart  is  at  home.  Miss  G.  got  along  very  well,  —  a  little 
pale  and  sad.  All  England  is  in  mourning  for  Sir  R.  Peel. 
How  awful !  One  of  my  letters  was  to  him,  whom  I  am  never 
to  see.  I  have  lived  so  much  at  home,  that  I  don't  know 
how  I  shall  go  along  —  or  go  alone.  But  if  we  all  meet 
again,  what  signifies  it  ?  Write  by  every  boat.  .  .  .  Tell  the 
news  —  the  news.  Remember  I  can  give  you  no  idea  by 
letters  of  all  I  see,  but  if  I  come  home  you  shall  hear  of 
'  My  Lord,  Sir  Harry  and  the  Captain '  till  you  are  tired. 
Good-by,  good-by.  It  is  near  three.  Mr.  B.  and  I  dine  at 
that  hour.  Bless  you  —  bless  you." 


To  MRS.  CHOATE. 

"  LONDON,  Friday,  July  12. 

"  DEAR  H.  AND  DEAR  CHILDREN,  —  We  are  in  London 
you  see,  —  at  Fenton's  Hotel,  St.  James's  Street,  and  very 
pleasantly  off  for  rooms  and  all  things.  I  have  not  yet 
delivered  my  letters,  but  we  have  been  everywhere  and 
walked  so  much,  and  seen  so  much,  that  I  am  to-day  almost 
beat  out.  .  .  .  Thus  far  I  have  stopped  nowhere,  examined 
nothing,  seen  nobody,  but  just  wandered,  wandered  every- 
where,—  floating  on  a  succession  of  memories,  reveries, 
dreams  of  London.  ...  I  think  we  shall  hurry  to  the  Con- 
tinent sooner  than  we  intended,  perhaps  in  a  week.  This 
will  depend  on  how  our  London  occupations  hold  out.  I 
cannot  particularize,  but  thus  far,  London,  England,  exceed 


218  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS   CHOATE.        [CHAP.  VH. 

in  interest  all  I  had  expected.  From  Liverpool  across,  all  is 
a  garden,  —  green  fields,  woods,  cottages,  as  in  pictures,  — 
here  and  there  old  Gothic  spires,  towers,  and  every  other 
picturesque  and  foreign-looking  aspect.  The  country  is  a 
deep  dark  green ;  the  buildings  look  as  in  engravings  and 
pictures,  and  all  things  so  strangely  mixed  of  reality  and 
imagination  that  I  have  not  been  able  to  satisfy  myself 
whether ,  I  am  asleep  or  awake.  But  London !  —  the  very 
first  afternoon  after  riding  two  hundred  miles,  we  rushed 
into  St.  James's  Park,  —  a  large,  beautiful  opening,  —  saw 
Buckingham  Palace,  the  Queen's  city  residence,  —  went  to 
Westminster  Abbey,  whose  bell  was  tolling  for  the  death  of 
the  Duke  of  Cambridge,  —  went  to  the  Thames  and  looked 
from  Westminster  Bridge  towards  St.  Paul's,  whose  dome 
hung  like  a  balloon  in  the  sky.  Next  morning  I  rose  at  six, 
and  before  eight  had  seen  Charing  Cross,  —  the  Strand,  — 
Temple  Bar,  an  arch  across  it  on  which  traitors'  heads  were 
suspended  or  fixed,  —  Fleet  Street,  where  Sam  Johnson  used 
to  walk  and  suffer,  —  St.  Dunstan's  church,  of  which  I  think 
we  read  in  the  '  Fortunes  of  Nigel,'  —  and  none  can  tell  what 
not.  Last  evening  I  went  to  the  opera,  and  heard,  in  the 
'  Tempest,'  Sontag  and  Lablache,  and,  in  '  Anna  Bolena,' 
Pasta,  —  the  most  magnificent  theatre,  audience,  music,  I 
ever  heard  or  saw.  Yet  Sontag  and  Pasta,  especially  Pasta, 
are  past  their  greatest  reputation.  ...  I  am  quite  well.  I 
die,  when  I  think  how  you  and  the  girls  would  enjoy  all. 
Bless  you.  Good-by.  R.  C." 


To  MRS.  CHOATE. 

"  LONDON,  Friday,  July  18. 

"  DEAR  H.  AND  DEAR  CHILDREN,  —  We  are  to  start 
to-day  for  Paris  and  our  tour  of  the  Continent.  We  shall 
get  to  Paris  to-morrow  eve,  and  thence  our  course  will  be 
guided  by  circumstances.  But  we  expect  to  be  here  again 
by  the  middle  or  last  of  August,  to  renew  our  exploration  of 
England  and  Scotland.  Thus  far,  except  that  I  am  tired  to 
death  of  seeing  sights  and  persons,  and  late  hours,  I  have 
been  very  well.  One  day  of  partial  sick-headache  is  all  I 
have  had  yet.  But  the  fatigue  of  a  day,  and  of  a  week  of 
mere  sight-seeing  is  extreme,  though  not  like  that  of  business, 


1850.]  LETTERS   TO  MRS.   CHOATE.  219 

—  and  the  late  hours  of  this  city,  to  me,  who  sometimes  used 
to  lose  myself  as  early  as  nine  or  ten,  are  no  joke.  I  have 
not  more  than  three  times  been  in  bed  till  twelve  or  one,  and 
up  again  at  seven  or  eight.  It  is  now  five  o'clock  in  the 
morning.  Expecting  to  come  back  to  London  so  soon,  I  have 
not  tried  to  see  it  all,  but  have  found  it  growing  daily  on  my 
hands.  We  attended  church  at  the  Foundling  Hospital  last 
Sunday,  where  some  five  hundred  to  one  thousand  charity 
children,  in  uniform  dress,  performed  the  responses.  The 
organ  was  Handel's  own,  and  the  sight  and  the  music,  and 
the  march  of  the  children  to  their  dinner  were  most  pleasant 
to  see  and  hear.  I  have  been  as  much  amazed  at  the  British 
Museum  as  at  any  thing.  It  is  a  vast  building,  one  part  of 
which,  divided  into  a  great  number  of  departments,  is  full  of 
all  manner  of  curiosities,  —  statuary,  antiquities,  specimens 
of  natural  history,  every  thing,  —  and  the  other  is  the  tran- 
scendent Library.  This  last  I  have  spent  much  time  in.  The 
catalogue  alone  fills  two  hundred  or  three  hundred  volumes. 
The  rooms  are  wide,  high,  of  the  size  of  Faneuil  Hall,  almost, 
and  lined  with  books  to  the  ceiling.  One  single  room  is  three 
hundred  feet  long,  and  full.  The  Temple  is  a  most  sweet 
spot  too,  —  a  sort  of  college,  enclosing  &  beautiful  large  area 
or  garden,  which  runs  to,  and  along,  the  Thames,  secluded 
and  still  in  the  heart  of  the  greatest  city  of  earth.  There 
Nigel  was,  before  returning  to  Alsatia. 

"  We  dined  at  Mr.  Lawrence's  pleasantly,  and  I  spent  a 
delightful  evening  at  Mr.  Bunsen's,  the  Prussian  minister. 
The  house  belongs  to  his  government,  and  is  a  palace ; 
rooms  large  and  high.  It  was  not  a  large  party,  —  chiefly 
for  music,  which  was  so  so,  Prussian  chiefly,  by  ladies  and 
gentlemen  of  the  party.  I  have  been  at  Lord  Ashburton's, 
Lord  Lonsdale's,  and  Mr.  Macaulay's,  and  am  to  go  to  Lord 
Ashburton's  in  Devonshire,  when  we  come  back.  The  deaths 
of  the  Duke  of  Gloucester  and  Sir  R.  Peel,  and  the  lateness 
of  the  season,  somewhat  check  the  course  of  mere  society ;  but 
I  have  been  most  politely  received,  and  more  than  I  expected 
gratified  by  the  mere  personnel  of  London.  Lord  Ashburton's 
house  is  a  palace  too,  full  of  pictures,  though  all  in  confusion 
on  the  eve  of  his  departure  for  his  summer  seat.  The  country 
is  the  grand  passion  of  such  persons.  Mr.  Macaulay  told  me 
they  would  sell  any  house  they  own  in  town  for  its  money 
value,  but  their  country  seats  nothing  could  take  from  them. 
...  I  wish  J:  would  ascertain  the  latest  day  to  which  my 


220  MEMOIR   OF  RUFUS   CHOATE.        [CHAP.  Vtt 

causes  in  the  S.  J.  C.  can  be  postponed,  and  write  very  par- 
ticularly which  must  come  on,  and  at  what  times,  doing  his 
best  to  have  all  go  over  till  October,  if  possible. 

"  The  confession  of  Professor  Webster  has  just  arrived. 
The  cause  is  as  well  known  here  as  there.  It  of  course  can- 
not save  him.1  Mr.  Coolidge  has  helped  us  to  a  capital 

1  It  is  understood  that  Mr.  Choate  was  earnestly  solicited  to 
defend  Dr.  Webster,  and  was  offered  what  was  then  considered  a 
very  liberal  fee  for  the  service.  He  was  unwilling  to  undertake  it, 
and  argued  with  the  attorneys  of  Professor  Webster  to  prove  that  he 
was  not  the  best  man.  I  am  permitted,  by  the  courtesy  of  his  Honor 
Judge  Neilson,  to  take  from  the  papers  which  he  has  furnished  to  the 
"  Albany  Law  Journal "  the  interesting  statements  furnished  by 
Edward  Ellerton  Pratt,  Esq.  (a  son-in-law  of  Mr.  Choate),  and  the 
Hon.  Otis  P.  Lord,  one  of  the  judges  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Massa- 
chusetts. Mr.  Pratt  says  :  — 

"  Mr.  Franklin  Dexter,  one  of  the  leaders  of  the  bar  of  New  Eng- 
land, was  greatly  interested  in  Professor  Webster's  case,  believed 
that  he  was  innocent,  and  was  persistently  earnest  that  Mr.  Choate 
should  defend  him  on  that  ground.  The  Hon.  Charles  Sumner,  also 
holding  that  view,  urged  Mr.  Choate  to  undertake  the  defence,  as  he 
expressed  it, '  in  the  interest  of  humanity,'  and  was  quite  angry  with 
him  for  refusing.  At  that  time  the  testimony  taken  before  the  coro- 
ner was  known ;  that  taken  by  the  grand  jury  by  whom  the  indict- 
ment had  been  found  was  not  publicly  known.  The  question  of  the 
Professor's  guilt  or  innocence  was  the  absorbing  topic,  and  the  ex- 
citement in  all  classes  of  society  was  intense. 

"  Mr.  Dexter  was  determined  to  secure  Mr.  Choate's  services,  and, 
after  much  study  of  the  case,  called  upon  him  by  appointment,  one 
evening,  to  lay  before  him  what  he  called  its  merits.  Mr.  Choate 
listened  to  him,  as  a  juror  might  have  done,  for  nearly  three  hours, 
and,  as  he  afterward  told  me,  it  was  one  of  the  most  vigorous  and 
persuasive  arguments  he  had  ever  heard.  That  estimate  may  well 
be  accepted,  when  we  remember  Mr.  Dexter's  admitted  ability,  his 
friendship  for  Professor  Webster,  and  his  belief  that  if  Mr.  Choate 
could  be  secured  as  counsel,  the  accused  man  might  be  saved. 

"  The  argument,  which  had  been  listened  to  without  question  or 
interruption,  having  closed,  Mr.  Choate  walked  up  and  down  his 
library  several  times,  and  then,  pausing  before  Mr.  Dexter,  who  was 
keenly  observing  him,  said,  'Brother  Dexter,  how  do  you  answer  this 
question,  and  this  ?  '  I  cannot  state  the  points  thus  presented,  but 
my  general  recollection  is  that  those  questions  presented  inherent 


1850.]  LETTERS   TO   MRS.   CHOATE.  221 

servant,  and  was  most  polite  and  kind ;  so  are  all  from  whom 
we  had  any  right  to  look  for  any  thing.  And  yet  if  I  were 

difficulties  underlying  the  defence.  Mr.  Dexter,  as  if  transfixed,  sat 
musing  deeply,  his  head  bent  upon  his  hand,  for  several  minutes,  and, 
finally,  as  if  hopeless  of  finding  an  answer,  and  seeking  relief,  he 

rose  suddenly  and  said,  'Brother  Choate,  have  you  read  'a 

book  ?  If  not,  do  so,  and  you  will  find  it  charming.'  Mr.  Choate 
accepted  his  changed  mood,  parted  from  him  soon  after  with  a 
kindly  expression  of  interest,  and  the  subject  was  never  alluded  to 
afterward  between  them. 

"  I  had  these  details  partly  from  Mrs.  Choate  and  partly  from  Mr. 
Dexter.  The  time  which  has  elapsed  since  then  is  so  long,  nearly 
thirty  years,  that  I  can  only  give  this  general  statement." 

Judge  Lord  says  :  — 

"  I  had  a  conversation  with  Mr.  Choate  on  this  subject.  It  was 
more  than  twenty  years  ago,  and,  of  course,  it  is  impossible  to  repro- 
duce precisely  his  language,  but  the  interview  was  substantially  this  : 
I  said  to  Mr.  Choate  :  '  Is  it  true  that  you  refused  to  defend  Professor 
Webster  ? '  to  which  his  reply  was,  not  in  direct  terms,  but  by  im- 
plication, that  he  did  not  absolutely  refuse,  but  that  they  did  not  want 
him.  Pausing  for  a  while,  he  added  :  '  There  was  but  one  way  to  try 
that  case.  When  the  attorney-general  was  opening  his  case  to  the 
jury,  and  came  to  the  discussion  of  the  identity  of  the  remains  found 
in  the  furnace  with  those  of  Dr.  Parkman,  the  prisoner's  counsel 
should  have  arisen,  and,  begging  pardon  for  the  interruption,  should 
have  said,  substantially,  that  in  a  case  of  this  importance,  of  course, 
counsel  had  no  right  to  concede  any  point,  or  make  any  admission,  or 
fail  to  require  proof,  and  then  have  added :  "  But  we  desire  the  attorney- 
general  to  understand,  upon  the  question  of  these  remains,  that  the 
strtifjr/le  will  not  be  there  !  But,  assuming  that  Dr.  Parkman  came  to  his 
death  within  the  laboratory  on  that  day,  we  desire  the  government  to 
show  whether  it  was  by  visitation  of  God,  or  whether,  in  an 
attack  made  by  the  deceased  upon  the  prisoner,  the  act  was  done  in 
self-defence,  or  whether  it  was  the  result  of  a  violent  altercation." 
Possibly  the  idea  of  murder  may  be  suggested,  but  not  with  more 
reason  than  apoplexy,  or  other  form  of  sudden  death.  As  the  pris- 
oner himself  cannot  speak,  the  real  controversy  will  probably  be  nar- 
rowed to  the  alternative  of  justifiable  homicide  in  self-defence,  or 
manslaughter  by  reason  of  sudden  altercation.'  " ' 

1  It  is  said  that  the  attorney-general  was  prepared,  if  homicide  were  ad- 
mitted, at  once  to  prove  intent,  previous  purpose.  The  defence  was,  un- 
doubtedly, very  much  hampered  by  the  headstrong  conduct  of  the  prisoner 
himself. 


222  MEMOIR   OF   RUFUS   CHOATE.         [CHAP.  VII. 

asked  if  I  have  ever  been  as  happy  as  I  am  every  day  and 
hour  at  home,  at  talk  with  you  all,  in  my  poor  dear  library, 
I  could  not  truly  say  I  have.  But  even  home  will  be,  I  hope, 
the  pleasanter  for  the  journey. 

"  Having  said  this,  he  added :  '  But  Professor  Webster  would  not 
listen  to  any  such  defence  as  that,'  accompanying  the  statement  with 
language  tending  to  show  that  the  proposed  defence  was  rejected 
both  by  the  accused  and  his  friends  and  advisers. 

"  He  then  said  that  the  only  difficulty  in  that  defence  was  to  ex- 
plain the  subsequent  conduct  of  Dr.  Webster,  and  proceeded  with  a 
remarkable  and  subtle  analysis  of  the  motives  of  men,  and  the  influ- 
ences which  govern  their  conduct,  to  show  that  the  whole  course  of 
the  accused  after  the  death  could  be  explained  by  a  single  mistake  as 
to  the  expediency  of  disclosing  what  had  happened  instantly ;  that 
hesitation  or  irresolution,  or  the  decision  :  '  I  will  not  disclose  this/ 
adhered  to  for  a  brief  half  hour,  might,  by  the  closing  in  of  circum- 
stances around  him,  have  compelled  all  that  followed.  Having  con- 
cealed the  occurrence,  he  was  obliged  to  dispose  of  the  remains,  and 
would  do  so  in  the  manner  suggested,  and  with  the  facilities  afforded 
by  his  professional  position.  He  concluded :  '  It  would  have  been 
impossible  to  convict  Dr.  Webster  of  murder  with  that  admission.' 

"  I  suggested  to  him  that  the  possession  of  his  note  by  Dr.  Webster, 
as  paid,  was  an  awkward  fact.  He  said :  '  Yes,  but  it  might  seem  to 
become  a  necessity  after  his  first  false  step  of  concealment.'  He 
added :  '  Dr.  Parkman  was  known  to  have  been  at  the  hospital. 
When,  how  soon,  and  under  what  circumstances,  and  to  explain  what 
statements  made  by  him,  he  thought  it  expedient  to  say  he  had  paid 
the  note,  or  to  obtain  the  possession  of  it,  would  never  appear.  It 
was  simply  an  incident,  whose  force  could  be  parried,  if  he  could  ob- 
tain credit  for  the  position  that  the  concealment  was  a  sudden  and 
impulsive  afterthought  which  took  possession  of,  and  controlled  him 
in  all  his  subsequent  conduct.'  " 

"  We  have  in  these  statements,"  says  Judge  Neilson,  "  the  desired 
testimony  touching  Mr.  Choate's  attitude  in  respect  to  that  most  im- 
portant case.  It  is  apparent  from  them  that,  while  accepting  the  theory 
that  a  lawyer  is  at  liberty  to  withhold  his  services  absolutely  in  a 
criminal  case,  he  yet  did  not  think  him  bound  to  go  into  court  contrary 
to  his  own  conscientious  convictions  to  assert  what  he  does  not  believe 
to  be  true,  or  to  take  a  line  of  defence  which  he  conceives  to  be  futile 
or  unjust.  His  refusal  to  appear,  as  explained  by  these  gentlemen,  is 
consistent  with  the  practice  which,  as  a  humane  man  and  self-sacrifi- 
cing counsellor,  he  exemplified  throughout  life,  and  is  in  keeping  with 
the  doctrine  of  an  advocate's  duty  as  asserted  by  Erskine  and  others." 


1850.]  LETTERS  TO  MRS.  CHOATE.  223 

"  Good-by,  all  dear  ones.  We  go  to  Dover  to-night,  start- 
ing at  one.  It  draws  near  to  breakfast,  and  I  must  go  to 
packing.  Bless  you  all.  Give  my  love,  to  Mrs.  B.  and  all 
inquirers.  R.  C." 


To  MBS.  CHOATE. 

"  PARIS,  Thursday,   24th  July. 

"DEAR  H.,  —  I  was  delighted  to  get  your  letter  yester- 
day, though  struck  speechless  to  learn,  at  the  moment  of  re- 
ceiving it  from  the  banker,  that  President  Taylor  is  dead.  I 
hardly  credit  it  yet,  though  it  is  as  certain  as  it  is  surprising. 
Better  for  him  perhaps,  but  what  an  overthrow  of  others,  — 
the  cabinet,  the  party,  and  all  things. 

"  We  got  here  Saturday  night,  and  have  been  —  I  have  — 
in  a  real  dream  ever  since.  Nothing  yet  seen  is  in  the  least 
degree  to  be  compared  with  Paris,  for  every  species  of  in- 
terest. Every  spot  of  which  you  read  in  the  history  of  the 
Revolution  and  the  times  of  Napoleon,  over  and  above  all 
that  belongs  to  it  historically,  is  a  thousand  times  more  beau- 
tiful and  more  showy  than  I  had  dreamed.  I  saw  the  Tuil- 
eries  by  moonlight,  Saturday  evening,  from  the  garden  of 
the  Tuileries.  This  garden  —  I  should  think  it  larger,  with 
the  Champs  Elysees  certainly,  than  a  dozen  of  our  Commons 
—  is  a  delightful  wood,  with  paths,  fountains,  statues,  busts, 
at  every  turn,  —  quiet,  though  a  million  of  people  seemed 
walking  in  it,  with  soldiers  here  and  there  to  keep  order.  It 
stretches  along  from  the  Tuileries  to  a  clearing  called  the 
Place  de  la  Concorde,  an  open  area  where  are  fountains,  arid 
the  great  Egyptian  obelisk.  Then  you  reach  the  Champs 
Elysees,  also  wooded,  not  so  close  or  quiet,  —  then  come  to 
the  Arch  of  Triumph,  a  prodigious  structure  on  which  are 
inscribed  the  names  of  Napoleon's  victories.  .  .  .  Notre 
Dame  is  a  majestic  old  church,  500  or  1,000  years  old,  as 
grand  as  Westminster  Abbey,  —  and  the  Madeleine  a  glori- 
ous new  Greek  Temple  church.  .  .  .  We  went  yesterday  to 
Versailles,  the  most  striking  spot  of  earth  out  of  Rome,  — 
one  enormous  palace,  full  of  innumerable  great  rooms,  halls, 
museums,  full  of  statues  and  pictures.  We  were  in  the  bed- 
room and  boudoir  of  Marie  Antoinette,  and  Louis  XVI.,  not 
usually  opened.  The  most  striking  place  I  have  seen,  of 
which  I  never  had  heard,  is  a  beautiful  chapel  built  over  the 
spot  where  Louis  XVI.  and  Marie  Antoinette  were  first 


224  MEMOIR   OF   RUFUS   CHOATE.        [CHAP.  VII. 

privately  buried.  There  they  lay  21  years  and  then  were 
removed  to  St.  Denis,  but  then  this  chapel  was  built.  It  has 
two  groups,  —  the  king,  an  angel  supporting  him,  and  the 
queen,  similarly  supported,  —  in  marble.  I  touched  the  place 
where  they  were  buried.  We  start  to-morrow  for  Brussels, 
Cologne,  the  Rhine,  and  Switzerland.  —  Best,  best  love  to 
all.  R.  C. 

"  Take  care  of  my  library,  —  dearer  than  the  Bibliotheqae 
du  Roi,  —  though  smaller !  " 


JOURNAL  OP  ME.  CHOATE. 

"  Saturday,  29th  June,  1850. 

"On  BOARD  THE  CANADA. 

"  I  never  promised  myself  nor  any  one  else  to  attempt  a 
diary  of  any  part  of  the  journey  on  which  I  have  set  out, 
still  less  of  rtie  first,  most  unpleasant,  and  most  unvaried, 
part  of  it,  —  the  voyage.  But  these  hours,  too,  must  be 
arrested  and  put  to  use.  These  days  also  are  each  a  life. 
'  Let  me  be  taught  to  number  them  then '  —  lest,  seeking 
health,  I  find  idleness,  ennui,  loss  of  interest  —  more  than  the 
allotted  and  uncontrollable  influence  of  time,  on  the  faculties 
and  the  curiosity. 

"  These  affectionate  aids,  too,  of  my  wife  and  daughters  — 
pen,  ink,  and  beautiful  paper  —  at  once  suggest  and  prescribe 
some  use  of  them.  Such  a  claim,  now  less  than  ever,  would 
I  disallow. 

"  So  I  will  try  to  make  the  briefest  record  of  the  barren 
outward  time,  and  try  also  to  set  myself  to  some  daily  task 
of  profit.  My  first  three  days,  Wednesday,  Thursday,  and 
Friday,  were  grasped  from  me  by  a  sick-headache  of  the 
Court  House,  aggravated,  changed,  by  the  sickness  of  the 
sea.  The  first  day  and  night  and  the  second  day  till  after 
dinner  were  one  fearful  looking-for  of  the  inevitable  conse- 
quences of  my  last  laborious  fortnight.  Ship  or  shore,  I 
should  have  had  it.  It  came,  is  gone,  and  for  the  first  time, 
to-day,  I  feel  like  myself,  and  to  be  well,  I  hope,  for  a  month 
more. 

u  Meantime  we  have  run  up  the  New  England  coast, 
touched  at  Halifax,  and  are  coming  fast  abreast  of  our  last 
land,  —  Cape  Race.  They  expect  to  pass  it  to-day  at  6  P.M., 


1850.]  JOURNAL  — ON  BOARD  THE  CANADA.  225 

and  the  east  wind  and  incumbent  fog  announce  the  vicinity 
of  the  inhospitable  coast  and  the  Great  Bank.  I  understand 
the  passage  of  Cape  Race  is  reckoned  th$  last  peril  of  the 
voyage,  at  this  season  —  till  we  make  the  Irish  shores.  We 
all  share  the  anxiety  and  appreciate  the  vigilance  of  the 
pilotage,  which  is  on  the  look-out  for  this  crisis.  Under  the 
circumstances,  it  infers  little  danger  at  least.  Thus  far,  till 
this  morning,  day  and  night  have  been  bright.  Sun,  moon, 
and  stars  have  been  ours,  —  and  the  wind  fair  and  fresh. 
We  have  generally  carried  sail,  often  studding  sails.  The 
sea  has  been  smooth  too,  for  ocean ;  yet  breathing  ever,  — 
life-full,  playing  with  us,  —  the  serene  face  of  waves  smiling 
on  us.  To-day,  is  some  change.  Wind  east ;  —  dead  ahead, 

—  a  low,  cold,  damp  fog,  brooding  for  ever  and  for  ever  in 
these  regions  of  the  meeting  of  the  warm  and  cold  tides.     On 
we  go  still,  every  sail  furled  close  —  eleven  miles  an  hour. 
I  remark  our  northing,  in  the  diminished  power  of  the  clear- 
est sunbeam  and  in  the  cool  air,  and  our  easting  in  the  loss 
of  my  watch's   time.     The  sun  comes  to   the  "meridian  an 
hour  sooner  than  in  Boston.     We  are  taking  our  meridian 
lunch,  while  our  dear  friends  hear  their  parlor  and  kitchen 
clocks  strike  eleven.     For  the  rest,  it  is  a  vast  sentient  image 
of  water  all  around.     We  have  seen  three  or  four  sail  daily, 

—  parcel  of  the  trade  of  England  to  her  northern  colonies  ;  — 
and  a  mackerel  fisherman  or  two ;  and  with  these  exceptions, 
we  are  alone  in  the  desert. 

"  Our  ship  is  a  man-of-war,  for  size,  quiet,  and  discipline ; 
the  passengers  a  well-behaved  general  set ;  my  accommoda- 
tions excellent.  HCEC  hactenus. 

"  I  have  come  away  without  a  book  but  the  Bible  and 
Prayer-Book  and  '  Daily  Food,'  and  I  sigh  for  the  sweet 
luxuries  of  my  little  library  [UXQOV  rs  qp/Aw  re. 

"  Yet  am  I  resolved  not  to  waste  this  week  '  in  ineptiis,' 
and  I  mean  to  know  more  at  the  end  of  it  than  I  know  now. 
I  will  commit  one  morsel  in  the  '  Daily  Food '  daily,  and 
have  to-day,  that  of  29th  June.  To  this,  I  mean  to  add  a 
page  at  least  of  French,  and  two  pages  of  '  Half-hours  with 
Best  Authors,'  with  Collectanea,  ut  possim. 

"  Liverpool.  —  Alas  !  on  that  very  Saturday  evening,  my 
real  sea-sickness  set  in,  pursued  me  till  Thursday,  then  fol- 
lowed languor,  restlessness,  and  all  the  unprofitable  and  un- 
availing resolving  of  such  a  state  of  the  mind  left  to  itself  on 
board  a  vessel.  The  result  is,  that  the  rest  of  my  voyage 

15 


226  MEMOIR   OF   RUFUS    CHOATE.         [CHAP.  VII. 

was  lost,  except  so  far  as  it  has  quite  probably  prepared  me 
for  better  health  and  fresher  sensations  on  shore. 

"  We  passed  Cape  Race  on  Saturday  evening  in  thick  fog, 
and  very  close,  nearer  I  suppose  to  a  point  of  it, —  the  pro- 
jecting termination  of  a  cove,  into  which  we  ran,  which  we 
coasted,  and  out  of  which  we  had  to  steer  by  a  total  change 
of  course,  —  nearer  than  we  designed.  To  see  it,  for  de- 
parture, was  indispensable  almost,  and  that  done  we  steered 
assured  and  direct  towards  Cape  Clear  in  Ireland.  Then 
followed  two  or  three  days  of  fog  and  one  or  two  more  of  a 
quite  rough  sea.  But  we  have  had  no  gale  of  wind,  and  on 
Friday  night  we  entered  the  Irish  Channel  and  ascended  it 
till  about  5  P.M.,  by  science  only,  when  we  saw  the  first  land 
since  our  departure  one  week  before  from  the  S.  E.  cape  of 
Newfoundland.  What  we  saw  were  islands  on  the  coast  of 
Wales,  or  mountains  of  Wales,  or  both.  We  came  up  toward 
Liverpool  as  far  as  the  bar  would  permit,  last  eve,  anchored 
or  waited  for  tide,  and  came  to  our  dock  at  about  8  this 
morning. 

"  On  Sunday  afternoon,  June  30th,  we  were  called  on  deck 
to  see  an  iceberg.  It  was  late  in  the  afternoon,  a  cold,  gross 
fog  incumbent,  a  dark  night  at  hand,  the  steamer  urging  for- 
ward at  the  rate  of  twelve  miles  an  hour.  The  iceberg  lay 
slowly  floating,  I  suppose  one-fourth  of  a  mile  off,  getting 
astern,  and  was  a  grand  and  startling  image  certainly.  It 
might  be  in  some  places  fifty,  in  some  one  hundred  feet  from 
the  water,  and  perhaps  three  hundred  to  five  hundred  yards 
long,  looking  like  a  section  of  a  mountain-top  severed  horizon- 
tally, but  ice,  ice,  suggesting  its  voyage  of  thousands  of  miles 
perhaps,  and^its  growth  of  a  thousand  years,  giving  us  to 
look  directly  on  the  terrible  North,  present  to  us  in  a  form 
of  real  danger.  The  Captain  professed  no  fears  from  such 
causes,  and  under  the  admirable  vigilance  of  his  command,  I 
suppose  there  was  not  much.  One  day  we  saw  porpoises,  as 
in  the  Sound,  and  I  saw  twice  vast  sheets  of  water  thrown 
up  by  the  spouting  of  the  whale,  although  himself  I  did  not 
see. 

"Enough.  The  voyage  is  over.  Brief,  prosperous,  yet 
tedious.  And  now  I  am  to  address  myself  to  the  business  of 
my  journey.  I  have  come  to  the  Waterloo  House,  to  a  de- 
licious breakfast,  including  honey,  strawberries  —  a  snug, 
clean  room  and  the  luxuries  of  purification  and  rest.  I  have 
traversed  a  street  or  two,  enough  to  recognize  the  Old  World 


I860.]          JOURNAL  — ON  BOARD  THE  CANADA.  227 

I  am  in.  I  am  beginning  to  admit  and  feel  the  impression  of 
England.  The  high  latitude,  deep  green  of  tree  and  land, 
clouded  sky,  cool,  damp  air ;  the  plain,  missive  and  enduring 
construction  of  fort,  dock,  store,  and  houses,  dark,  large,  brick 
or  stone,  instantaneously  strike.  Thus  far  it  seems  gloomy, 
heavy,  yet  rich,  strong,  deep,  a  product  of  ages  for  ages. 
Yet  I  have  not  looked  at  any  individual  specimen  of  antiquity, 
grandeur,  power,  or  grace.  I  have  attended  service  at  St. 
George's  for  want  of  knowing  where  to  go.  The  music  was 
admirable,  forming  a  larger  part  than  in  the  American  Epis- 
copal Service,  and  performed  divinely.  The  sermon  was 
light,  and  the  delivery  cold,  sing-song,  on  the  character  of 
David. 

"  And  now  to  some  plan  of  time  and  movement  for  Eng- 
land. Before  breakfast  I  shall  walk  at  least  an  hour  observ- 
antly, and  on  returning  jot  down  any  thing  worth  it.  This 
hour  is  for  exercise,  however.  I  mean  next  to  read  every 
day  a  passage  in  the  Bible,  a  passage  in  the  Old  and  in  the 
New  Testament,  beginning  each,  and  to  commit  my  '  Daily 
Food.'  Then,  I  must  carefully  look  at  the  papers,  for  the 
purpose  of  thoroughly  mastering  the  actual  English  and  Eu- 
ropean public  and  daily  life,  and  this  will  require  jotting 
down,  the  debates,  the  votes,  chiefly.  Then  I  must  get,  say 
half  an  hour  a  day,  for  Greek  and  Latin  and  elegant  English. 
For  this  purpose,  I  must  get  me  an  Odyssey  and  Crusius, 
and  a  Sallust,  and  some  single  book  of  poems  or  prose,  say 
Wordsworth.  This,  lest  taste  should  sleep  and  die,  for  which 
no  compensations  shall  pay  ! 

"  For  all  the  rest,  I  mean  to  give  it  heartily,  variously,  to 
what  travel  can  teach,  —  men  —  opinions  —  places,  —  with 
great  effort  to  be  up  to  my  real  powers  of  acquiring  and  im- 
parting. This  journey  shall  not  leave  me  where  it  finds  me. 
Better,  stronger,  knowing  more.  One  page  of  some  law- 
book  daily,  I  shall  read.  That  1  must  select  to-morrow  too. 

"Friday,  \'2th  July. —  I  must  write  less,  but  more  regu- 
larly, or  the  idea  of  a  journal  must  be  abandoned.  Tuesday 
I  came  to  London,  a  beautiful  day,  through  a  beautiful  land, 
leaving  an  image,  a  succession  of  images,  ineffaceable.  That 
which  strikes  most  is  the  universal  cultivation,  the  deep,  live, 
fresh  green  on  all  things,  the  hedge-fences,  the  cottages  small 
and  brick,  the  absence  of  barns,  and  the  stacks  of  hay  out 
of  dpors,  the  excellent  station  constructions,  the  Gothic  spires 
and  castles  here  and  there  among  trees,  identifying  the  scene 


228  MEMOIR   OF  RUFUS    CHOATE.        [CHAP.  VU. 

and  telling  something  of  the  story.  The  railroad  was  less 
smooth  than  the  Lowell,  at  least  the  car  ran  less  smoothly. 
Here  and  there  women  were  at  work  in  the  fields.  I  know 
not  how  rich  was  the  land.  I  saw  no,  or  not  much,  waste, 
and  the  main  aspect  was  of  a  nearly  universal  and  expensive 
culture. 

"  We  passed  through  Tamworth,  and  saw  at  a  distance  a 
flag  at  half-mast  from  a  tower.  It  was  the  day  of  Sir  Robert 
Peel's  funeral,  of  which,  however,  we  saw  nothing.  Tuesday 
eve,  Wednesday,  and  yesterday  I  rambled,  and  to-day  have 
lain  still.  I  ran  this  way  and  that,  like  a  boy,  seeking  every- 
where and  finding  everywhere  some  name  and  place  made 
classical  by  English  literary  or  general  history,  and  have 
brought  off  a  general,  vague,  yet  grand  impression  of  Lon- 
don, with  no  particulars  of  knowledge.  The  parks  are 
sweet  spots,  quiet  and  airy,  but  plain.  Green  Park,  at  least, 
was  partially  dotted  by  flocks  of  sheep.  Buckingham  Palace, 
name  apart,  does  not  strike  much  more  than  the  Capitol  or 
President's  house.  Westminster  Abbey  externally  is  sublime. 
The  new  Parliament  House  will  be  showy. 

"  I  heard  a  cause  partially  opened  to  a  committee  of  Lords  ; 
another  partially  argued  to  the  jury  in  the  Exchequer;  and 
another  partially  argued  to  the  Lord  Commissioners.  The 
A.  G.  [Attorney-general]  Jervis,  [Sir  John  Jervis,]  and  Mr. 
Cockburn,  [Alexander  E.  Cockburn,]  open  respectively  for 
and  versus  Pate,  for  striking  the  Queen.  There  was  no  occa- 
sion for  much  exertion  or  display,  and  there  was  nothing  of 
either.  Mr.  Cockburn  had  the  manner  of  Franklin  Dexter 
before  the  committee.  Mr.  Marten  seemed  animated  and 
direct  in  a  little  Exchequer  jury  cause.  Pate  would  have 
been  acquitted  in  Massachusetts.  The  English  rule  is,  — 
knowledge,  or  want  of  it,  that  the  act  is  wrong.  The  prison- 
er's counsel,  in  my  judgment,  gave  up  his  case  by  conceding  ; 
he  feared  he  should  fail.  I  thought  and  believed  he  might 
have  saved  him.  The  chief  judge  presiding,  Alderson,  [Sir 
E.  H.  Alderson,]  offended  me.  He  is  quick,  asks  many 
questions,  sought  unfavorable  replies,  repeats  what  he  puts 
down  as  the  answer,  abridged  and  inadequate.  The  whole 
trial  smacked  of  a  judiciary,  whose  members,  bench  and  bar, 
expect  promotion  from  the  Crown.  Their  doctrine  of  in- 
sanity is  scandalous.  Their  treatment  of  medical  evidence, 
and  of  the  informations  of  that  science,  scandalous. 

"  One  thing  struck  me.     Att  seemed  to  admit  that  the 


1850.]  JOURNAL  — PARIS.  229 

prisoner  was  so  far  insane  as  to  make  whipping  improper ! 
yet  that  he  was  not  so  insane  as  not  to  be  guilty.  Suppose 
him  tried  for  murder,  how  poor  a  compromise  ! 

"  The  question  on  handwriting  was  '  do  you  believe  it  to  be 
his  ?  '  after  asking  for  knowledge.  Opening  the  pleadings  is 
useless,  except  to  the  court,  and  is  for  the  court.  The  coun- 
sel interrogating  from  a  brief ;  leads  in  interrogation,  being 
very  much  on  uncontested  matter.  It  saves  time  and  is  not 
quarrelled  with.  The  speaker  is  at  too  great  a  distance  from 
the  jury.  Their  voices  are  uncommonly  pleasant ;  pronun- 
ciation odd,  affected,  yet  impressing  you  as  that  of  educated 
persons.  Some,  Mr.  Humphry,  Mr.  Cockburn,  occasionally 
hesitated  for  a  word.  All  narrated  drily ;  not  one  has  in 
the  least  impressed  me  by  point,  force,  language,  power ; 
still  less,  eloquence  or  dignity.  The  wig  is  deadly.  The 
Exchequer  Jury  Sittings  were  in  Guildhall  as  were  the  C.  C. 
Pleas.  Pate  was  tried  at  the  Old  Bailey.  The  rooms  are 
small,  —  never  all  full.  Mr.  Byles  was  in  one  ins.  cause  in 
C.  C.  Pleas. 

"  Last  eve,  I  heard  Son  tag  and  Lablache  in  La  Tempeta 
and  saw  the  faded  Pasta.  I  returned  late,  and  am  sick 
to-day,  a  little.  Bought  Kuhner's  Edition  of  the  Tusculan 
Questions.  Mr.  Bates  called  and  made  some  provision  for 
our  amusement. 

"  I  read  Bible,  Prayer-book,  a  page  of  Bishop  Andrews's 
Prayers,  a  half-dozen  lines  of  Virgil  and  Homer,  and  a  page 
of  Williams's  Law  of  Real  Property." 

THE   CONTINENT. 

"  July  19,  Friday.  —  Left  London  for  Folkestone,  whence 
across  to  Boulogne  —  a  cloudy  day  terminating  in  copious 
rain  —  through  which  the  deep  green  of  English  landscape 
looked  gloomy  arid  uniform.  At  Folkestone,  which  is  a  few 
miles  S.  W.  of  Dover,  just  built  up  to  be  a  terminus  point  of 
transit  of  railroad  and  steamboat  line  to  France,  found  our  — 
for  the  present  —  last  English  hotel,  clean  bedrooms,  abun- 
dance of  water,  and  all  other  appointments,  and  all  well 
administered  and  soundly  exacting. 

"  Saturday.  —  We  passed  in  the  steamboat  to  Boulogne, 
breakfasted  at  B.  and  came  to  Paris,  arriving  at  six.  The 
passage  across  the  Channel  was  on  a  foggy,  rainy  morning, 
showing  that  renowned  water  drearily  and  indistinctly,  and  a 
little  darkening  our  first  experience  of  France.  Numerous 


230  MEMOIR   OF  RUFUS   CHOATE.        [CHAP.  VH 

vessels,  from  small  fishermen  of  both  coasts  to  large  mer- 
chant ships,  were  in  view,  however,  and  I  recalled,  with  Mr. 
Prescott,  the  occasions  when  Roman,  Saxon,  Danish,  and 
Dutch  keels  had  ploughed  it,  the  old  intercourse  of  France 
and  Scotland,  the  voyage  of  Mary,  the  descents  of  the  Henrys 
and  Edwards,  and  the  cruise  of  so  many  great  fleets,  in  so 
many  and  such  various  fortunes  of  England  and  France. 
Mr.  P.  told  me  of  Lockhart,  who  interested  him  deeply,  thinks 
freely,  despises  the  Bishops,  utters  brilliant  sarcasms,  lives 
retired,  sad,  and  independent.  Deaths  of  the  loved,  the  bad 
character  of  a  living  child,  with  other  unexplained  causes,  are 
supposed  to  cause  it.  He  saw  at  L's.  the  MSS.  of  '  Rob  Roy,' 
the  first  hundred  pages  covered  with  second  thoughts  —  then 
all  working  itself  consummate  by  the  first  effort.  He  related 
sarcasms  of  Rogers,  sneers  at  the  Bishop  of  Oxford,  Wilber- 
force  —  the  incredible  touching  and  altering,  by  which  the 
historic  sheet  of  Macaulay  at  last  is  brought  to  its  perfection  ; 
—  the  great  narrowness  of  all  male  and  female  Church 
adherents,  —  the  mendacious  reputation  of  Lord  B.,  telling 
an  audience  at  Harrow,  his  father  and  grandfather  were  edu- 
cated there,  every  man,  woman,  and  child  knowing  better. 
By  the  time  we  were  ready  to  leave  Boulogne  the  sun  came 
out,  and  our  ride  to  Paris  was  lighted  by  a  sweet,  glowing 
summer's  day.  I  must  say  I  was  delighted  with  the  country. 
Part  of  our  way  was  quite  on  the  seashore,  as  far  as  Abbe- 
ville, thence  more  inland,  and  the  last  three  to  five  hours  lay 
through  whole  prairies  of  fields  ripe  with  wheat.  Till  now 
I  had  no  conception  of  the  wheat  culture  of  France,  nor  of 
the  affluent  and  happy  aspect  with  which  the  wheat  harvest, 
when  nodding,  yellow,  over  l,evel  plains,  up  the  sides  and  to 
the  tops  of  hills,  through  patches  of  trees,  five  miles  to  six  or 
seven  in  extent  on  each  side,  for  a  distance  of  fifty  miles, 
robes  a  country.  Why,  France,  if  all  like  this,  could  feed 
Europe.  A  few  vineyards  were  interspersed  here  and  there ; 
chateaux  in  the  distance  and  the  towers  of  cathedrals,  with 
men  and  women  at  work  in  the  fields,  completed  the  scene. 
Ah,  how  absurd,  yet  common,  to  think  of  Paris  only  as 
France,  and  the  Deputies  only  as  Paris.  How  English  media 
refract  and  tinge.  The  cars  were  the  best  I  ever  saw,  and  the 
whole  railroad  administration,  rapid  and  in  all  things  excel- 
lent. I  am  come  to  Hotel  Canterbury.  Of  Paris  from  the 
station  I  avoided  seeing  much,  but  could  not  wholly  lose  the 
narrow  street  and  vast  height  of  houses  and  want  of  wealth 


1850.]  JOURNAL  — PARIS.  231 

in  shop-windows.  After  dinner,  at  nine  in  the  evening,  by 
moonlight,  I  first  saw  Paris.  I  walked  down  through  the 
Place  Vendome,  looked  on  the  column  cast  of  cannon,  tower- 
ing gloomy,  grim,  storied,  surmounted  by  Napoleon,  recog- 
nized even  so,  and  in  three  minutes  stood  in  the  Gardens, 
before  the  structure  of  the  Tuileries.  This  scene,  this 
moment,  are  ineffaceable  for  ever !  Some  soldiers  in  uni- 
form, with  muskets  bayoneted,  marched  to  and  fro  near  the 
entrance.  Hundreds,  thousands  —  men,  women,  and  children 
—  were  walking  in  the  Garden,  in  paths  beneath  a  wood, 
extending,  so  far  as  I  could  see,  without  limit;  lights 'twin- 
kled in  it  here  and  there ;  vases,  statues,  reposed  all  around ; 
fountains  were  playing,  and  before  me  stretched  the  vast 
front  of  the  Tuileries,  the  tricolor  hanging  motionless  on  its 
dome,  the  moonlight  sleeping  peacefully  and  sweetly  on  the 
scene  of  so  much  glory,  so  much  agony  —  a  historic  interest 
so  transcendent.  I  did  not  go  to  the  Seine,  nor  seek  for 
definite  ideas  of  locality,  or  extent;  but  gave  myself  to  a 
dream  of  France,  '  land  of  glory  and  love.'  Far,  far  to  the 
west,  I  remarked  an  avenue  extending  indefinitely,  —  along 
whose  sides,  at  what  seemed  an  immense  distance,  twinkled 
parallel  lines  of  lights.  I  did  not  then  know  that  it  ran  to 
the  Place  de  la  Concorde  —  the  Obelisk  —  and  thence  on, 
on,  becoming  the  Avenue  of  the  Champs  Elysees  —  and  so 
to  the  Arch  at  last.  That  I  learned  the  next  morning. 

"  22d.  —  It  is  now  Monday  morning.  I  have  not  been  out 
to-day  yet.  But  yesterday  I  saw  and  entered  Notre  Dame 
and  the  Madeleine  —  glorious  specimens  of  diverse  styles  — 
pure  Gothic  and  Greek.  Notre  Dame  impresses  as  a  mere 
structure,  as  much  as  Westminster  Abbey.  It  is  cruciform. 
At  the  west  end  rise  two  vasf  towers,  lofty,  and  elaborately 
finished  —  telling  of  a  thousand  years.  Between  these  you 
enter  and  are  in  the  nave.  Thence  you  may  wander  through 
ranges  of  pillars  from  which  the  pure  Gothic  arch  is  spring- 
ing, mark  along  the  sides  the  numerous  chapels  in  recesses, 
observe  the  two  vast  circular  windows  of  the  transept,  and 
look  up  to  the  ceiling  rising  as  a  firmament  above  you.  No 
statues  or  tablets  of  the  dead  are  here.  Pictures  of  sacred 
subjects  on  the  walls,  worshippers  here  and  there,  the  appoint- 
ments of  the  Papal  service,  —  the  grand,  unshared,  unmodified 
character  of  a  mere  cathedral  is  on  it  all.  The  Madeleine  is 
a  beautiful  Greek  temple,  showy  and  noble.  The  Boulevards 
terminate  there  —  thence  running  I  know  not  how  far  —  a 

I 


232  MEMOIR   OF   RUFUS   CHOATE.         [CHAP.  VII 

vast,  broad  street  with  thousands  of  both  sexes  walking, 
sitting  outside  of  cafes,  drinking  coffee,  wine,  &c.,  the  whole 
lined  by  miles  of  shops,  cafes,  and  other  places  of  public 
resort  — glittering  and  full. 

"  Monday,  22d  July.  —  This  morning  I  am  to  begin  a  more 
detailed  observation  of  Paris." 


"  Basle,  2d  August,  Friday.  — A  day  of  rain  and  a  head- 
ache compel  or  excuse  my  lying  by  till  to-morrow,  and  so  I 
avail  myself  of  an  undesired  and  unexpected  opportunity  to 
recall  some  of  the  sights  that  have  been  crowded  into  the  last 
fortnight.  Left  Paris  Friday  eve,  July  26,  for  Brussels,  to 
which  point  we  came  to  breakfast  —  visited  Waterloo,  and 
next  morning  started  for  Cologne  where  we  arrived  at  sunset. 
On  Monday  went  to  Bonn  and  passed  the  afternoon  and  night, 
—  making,  however,  an  excursion  to  the  top  of  Drachenfels. 
Thus  far  our  journey  was  by  rail.  The  next  morning  we 
embarked  on  the  Rhine  in  the  steamer  Schiller,  and  ascended 
to  Wiesbaden,  arriving,  by  aid  of  a  quarter  or  half  an  hour 
hi  an  omnibus,  at  nine  o'clock.  On  Wednesday  we  came  by 
rail  to  Kehl  opposite  and  four  miles  from  Strasburg,  glancing 
at  Frankfurt,  and  spending  three  hours  at  Heidelberg.  Yes- 
terday we  crossed  to  Strasburg,  —  visited  the  Cathedral,  and 
came  by  rail  to  Basle  in  season  for  dinner  at  the  table  d'hote. 
And  now  what  from  all  this  ?  I  shall  remember  with  con- 
stant interest  Paris,  and  shall  extend  my  acquaintance  with 
the  language,  literature,  and  history  of  the  strange  and  beau- 
tiful France.  Besides  what  I  have  already  recorded,  I 
attended  a  sitting  of  the  Chamber  of  Deputies  —  an  assem- 
bly of  good-looking  men  —  not  just  then  doing  any  thing  of 
interest  —  most  interesting,  however,  as  the  government,  and 
the  exponent  and  multifarious  representation  of  the  political 
and  social  opinions  and  active  organ  of  a  great  nation. 
M.  Berryer  I  saw,  and  Eugene  Sue,  and  M.  Mole.  M. 
Guizot  I  saw  afterwards  in  the  steamer  Schiller,  going  up 
from  Bonn.  He  left  the  boat  at  Coblentz.  Two  or  three 
deputies  spoke  to  a  most  freezing  inattention.  They  '  got  the 
floor'  in  their  seats,  then  went  to  the  tribune,  laid  their  MS$. 
at  their  side  —  and  went  to  it  as  we  lecture  at  Lyceums. 
Great  animation — much  gesture  —  a  constant  rising  inflec- 
tion at  the  end  of  periods  before  the  final  close  of  the  sen- 
tence —  an  occasional  look  at  the  MSS.  and  pull  at  the  turn- 


1850.]  JOURNAL  — PAKIS.  233 

bier  of  water  —  some  pausings  at  the  noise  of  inattention  — 
this  is  all  I  could  appreciate.  The  courts  of  law  pleased  me 
too.  The  judges  in  cloaks  or  robes  of  black,  with  capes,  — 
quiet,  thoughtful,  and  dignified ;  the  advocate  in  a  cloak  and 
bare-headed,  debating  with  animation,  and  no  want  of  dignity 
—  the  dress  and  manners  far  better  than  the  English  bar. 
The  silk  gown  or  cloak  is  graceful  and  fit,  and  might  well 
have  been  (it  is  too  late  now)  among  the  costumes  of  our 
bar. 

"  This  was  all  I  saw  of  the  mind  of  France  in  political  or 
executive  action.  The  impression  I  brought  from  them  was 
of  great  respect.  In  this  I  can  say  nothing  of  the  opinions  or 
wisdom  of  anybody.  The  chamber  seemed  full  of  energy, 
quickness,  spirit,  capacity.  The  courts  grave,  dignified, 
among  forms,  and  in  halls,  of  age,  solemnity,  and  impressive- 
ness.  Great  French  names  of  jurisprudence  came  to  my 
memory,  and  I  learned  to  feel  new  regard  for  my  own  pro- 
fession. 

"  The  rest  of  my  time  I  gave  to  the  storied  spectacles  of 
Paris.  The  Louvre,  a  part  of  which  was  closed  for  repairs, 
leaving  enough  to  amaze  one,  —  such  a  wilderness  of  form, 
color,  posture,  —  roof,  walls,  pedestals,  alive  with  old  and  mod- 
ern art ;  Versailles,  holding  within  it  the  history  of  the  nation 
of  France,  tracing  in  picture  and  statue  its  eras,  showing  forth 
its  glory,  breathing  and  generating  an  intense  nationality, 
with  here  and  there  a  small  room,  a  boudoir  of  Marie  Antoi- 
nette, or  a  confessional  of  Louis  Sixteenth,  touching  a  softer 
and  sadder  emotion ;  St.  Cloud,  of  which  I  saw  only  the 
delightful  exterior,  imperial,  grand ;  the  street  to  Versailles 
through  the  Bois  de  Boulogne ;  the  little  chapel  over  the  first 
burial-place  of  Louis  Sixteenth  and  Marie  Antoinette,  full  of 
deepest  and  saddest  interest ;  the  Luxembourg,  its  deserted 
chamber  of  the  Senate  of  Napoleon  and  the  Peers  of  the  Res- 
toration and  Louis  Philippe's  dynasty,  and  its  glorious  gallery 
of  pictures ;  the  Royal  Library  in  which  I  was  disappointed 
after  the  British  Museum,  but  where  are  some  old  curiosities 
and  a  capital  statue  of  Voltaire,  —  these  are  of  my  banquet 
of  three  days.  I  went  through  the  Garden  of  Plants  too, 
which  we  should  imitate  and  beat  at  Washington  ;  the  Place 
de  Greve,  the  site  of  that  guillotine  ;  the  Hotel  des  Invalides ; 
the  Pantheon,  disagreeable  as  a  monument  to  the  dead  ;  Pere- 
la-Chaise,  which  exceeded  my  expectations,  and  shows  France 
affectionate  and  grateful  and  thoughtful  to  the  loved  and  lost ; 


234  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS   CHOATE.        [CHAP.  VII. 

Place  Bastille,  sacred  by  its  column  to  the  Revolution  of  1830, 

—  with  interest,  and  sufficiently. 

"  The  cafes  and  cafe  dinners  are  a  strict  Parisian  fact  and 
spectacle,  —  cooking,  service,  and  appointments,  artistical  as  a 
theatre.  A  dinner  at  the  '  Trois  Freres '  is  to  be  remembered. 
And  so  adieu  to  France.  We  entered  on  that  famous  soil 
again  at  Strasburg  to  find  '  Liberte,  Egalite,  Fraternite,' 
graven  on  every  national  front,  and  to  mark  the  quickness, 
courtesy,  and  skill  with  which  all  things  are  done.  I  made 
the  acquaintance  of  but  one  inhabitant  of  Paris  out  of  the 
hotel,  M.  Bossange,  the  bookseller  in  the  Quai  Voltaire,  polite, 
kind,  and  honest,  of  whom  I  ordered  some  books. 

"  I  have  seen  Paris  with  any  feeling  but  that  of  disappoint- 
ment. I  feel  no  other  at  least,  than  that  which  always  attends 
the  substitution  of  the  actual  spectacle  for  the  imaginary  one 
which  rises  on  the  mind  of  every  reader  of  an  event  or  de- 
scription, and  which,  by  a  thousand  repetitions,  becomes  the 
only  spectacle  which  can  fill  his  mind  full.  I  have  lost  the 
Tuileries,  and  Boulevards,  and  Champs  Elysees,  and  Seine, 
and  Versailles,  and  St.  Cloud,  of  many  years  of  reading  and 
reverie,  —  a  picture  incomplete  in  details,  inaccurate  in  all 
things,  yet  splendid  and  adequate  in  the  eye  of  imagination, 

—  and  have  gained  a  reality  of  ground  and  architecture,  ac- 
curate, detailed,  splendid,  impressive,  —  and  I  sigh  ! 

"  One  word  is  enough  for  Belgium.  Everywhere  and  in- 
stantly you  are  struck  with  the  vast  level  yet  varied  garden 
of  agriculture,  through  which  you  ride.  Every  inch  at  first 
seems  tilled.  Wheat,  rye,  flax,  everywhere,  —  a  wilderness, 
a  prairie,  a  flood  of  cultivation.  You  see,  as  in  France  and 
Germany,  few  people  in  the  fields,  few  cottages.  It  seems  to 
be  tilled  by  night  by  unseen  hands.  I  gave  no  time  to  Brus- 
sels, which  every  guide-book  describes,  but  rode  to  Waterloo 
and  studied  that  locality,  —  a  sweet,  undulating,  vast  wheat- 
field,  a  spot  memorable  and  awful  above  all  I  shall  see  or  have 
seen.  I  have  now  an  indelible  image,  by  the  aid  of  which  I 
can  read  anew  the  story  of  that  day  —  the  last  of  the  battles  ! 
I  retain,  1st,  the  short  line  along  which  the  two  armies  were 
ranged,  —  say  a  mile  or  a  mile  and  a  half  from  wing  to  wing; 
2d,  the  narrow  space  of  valley  between  the  two  lines,  the  ar- 
tillery of  either  posted  over  against  that  of  the  other  a  quarter 
or  a  third  of  a  mile  apart ;  3d,  the  inconsiderable,  easy,  ascent 
from  the  valley,  up  to  the  British  ridge ;  4th,  the  sufficiency 
of  the  ridge  to  shelter  from  the  French  artillery ;  5th,  the 


1850.]  JOURNAL  — THE  RHINE.  235 

precise  position  and  aspect  of  the  shattered,  pierced,  and  singed 
Hougoumont  guarded  from  artillery  by  its  wood,  —  guarded 
in  its  interior  citadel  by  a  brilliant  and  transcendent  courage ; 
6th,  La  Haye  Sainte,  taken,  retaken,  held,  on  right  of  centre, 
from  which  nothing  was  reaped  ;  7th,  the  place  of  the  terrific 
attack  in  which  Picton  fell,  and  the  place  of  the  later,  final 
attack,  now  obliterated  by  the  mound.  The  plan,  series, — 
attacks  on  Hougoumont  and  La  Haye  Sainte,  —  cannonade 
to  prepare,  —  charges  of  cavalry  met  by  squares,  charges  of 
infantry  met  by  any  thing.  The  following  years  undoubtedly 
yielded  richer  crops  of  wheat  than  before.  In  some  places 
of  burial,  by  decay,  large  depressions  of  earth  disclosed 
themselves. 

"  I  am  glad  I  did  not  see  enough  of  Liege  to  correct  '  Quen- 
tin  Durward,'  and  I  was  glad  to  leave  Brussels  and  to  come 
upon  Rhenish  Prussia,  and  into  the  valley  of  the  Rhine,  all  at 
once.  Everywhere  from  Brussels  to  Cologne,  on  all  practi- 
cable spots,  wheat  and  rye,  ripe  for  the  sickle,  everywhere 
the  same  universal  culture,  here  and  there  a  castle  or  chateau, 
or  harnessed  dog,  or  unintelligible  conversation,  reminded  me 
where  we  were. 

"  I  could  have  wished  to  stay  a  little  at  Aix-la-Chapelle, 
historically  and  actually  striking ;  but  on  we  were  whirled ; 
the  valley  of  the  Rhine  opened,  a  vast  plain  with  no  river  yet 
in  sight,  groaning  under  its  wheat  spread  on  all  sides,  and  just 
before  coming  to  the  great  old  gates  of  Cologne,  the  river, 
rapid,  majestic,  flashed  to  sight.  In  half  an  hour  I  was  in 
my  room  at  the  hotel,  and  looked  down  on  the  river  flowing 
at  my  very  feet  within  fifty  yards  of  the  house,  broad  and 
free,  under  his  bridge  of  boats. 

''  From  that  moment  to  this  my  journey  has  been  a  vision 
of  the  Rhine.  I  have  gained  new  images  and  knowledge, 
new  materials  of  memory  and  thought.  The  width,  rapidity, 
volume,  tone  of  the  river,  exceed  all  my  expectations.  But 
the  aspects  of  its  shores  from  Bonn  to  Coblentz,  and  its  whole 
valley  again  from  Wiesbaden  to  Strasburg!  —  the  scenery 
so  diverse  ;  plain,  hill,  crag,  mountain,  vale  ;  the  fields  and 
patches  of  culture,  mainly  of  vine,  but  of  wheat,  too,  and 
apple,  and  all  things,  which  spread  and  brighten  to  the  very 
"tops  of  mountains  ;  the  castellated  ruins,  —  never  wholly  out 
of  view;  —  these  will  abide  for  ever.  The  mere  scenery  is 
nowhere,  except  at  two  points,  perhaps,  —  Coblentz  and  Hei- 
delberg, —  superior  to  the  North  River.  But  the  character 


236  MEMOIR   OF  RUFUS   CHOATE.        [CHAP.  VH. 

of  the  agriculture,  the  vine  as  well  as  wheat,  its  spread  over 
every  inch  of  practicable  earth,  carried  as  by  a  nature  to  the 
minutest  and  remotest  vein  of  yielding  earth;  the  history 
of  the  river,  —  the  most  eastern  frontier  of  imperial  Rome,  — 
her  encampments  here  and  there,  discernible  still  in  the 
names  of  towns,  and  in  innumerable  works  of  military  or  fine 
art,  —  the  scene  of  so  many  more  recent  strifes  and  glories  ; 
the  ruins  resting  so  grandly  on  so  many  summits,  —  the  rec- 
ord, every  one  of  them,  of  a  thousand  years,  —  all  together 
give  it  a  higher  and  different  interest.  I  visited  the  library 
at  Bonn,  —  a  university  to  which  Niebuhr  and  Schlegel  would 
give  fame,  —  of  130,000  to  180,000  volumes;  the  tops  of 
Drachenfels,  reminding  one  of  the  view  from  Holyoke  over 
Northampton,  but  pervaded  by  this  high  and  specific  and 
strange  historical  interest ;  the  Castle  of  Heidelberg,  restoring 
you,  grimly,  grandly,  the  old  feudal  time,  and  opening  from 
its  mouldering  turrets  a  sweet  and  vast  view  of  the  Necker 
and  the  valley  of  the  Necker  and  the  Rhine ;  and  the  Cathe- 
dral of  Strasburg,  where  mass  was  performing  and  a  glorious 
organ  was  filling  that  unbounded  interior  with  the  grandest 
and  the  sweetest  of  music,  through  whose  pauses  you  heard 
the  muttered  voice  of  the  priest,  and  the  chanting  of  a  choir 
wholly  out  of  sight.  Byron  does  not  overstate  the  impression 
of  the  Rhine,  nor  the  regrets  of  parting  from  it,  nor  the  keen 
sense  of  how  much  loved  and  absent  ones,  if  here,  would 
heighten  all  its  attractions.  The  points  of  particular  interest 
are  the  Drachenfels,  Coblentz,  with  Ehrenbreitstein,  Heidel- 
berg, the  cathedral  at  Strasburg ;  but  the  general  impression 
made  by  the  whole  Rhine  is  one  of  a  unity,  identity,  entirety, 
and  depth,  never  to  be  equalled,  never  to  be  resembled.  Old 
Rome  predominated  in  the  vision,  next  the  Middle  Age, 
Church  and  Barons,  then  the  age  of  Louis  XIV.,  then  the 
form  of  Napoleon,  and  the  passage  of  the  armies  of  modern 
war.  The  Rhine  would  form  a  grand  subject  of  a  lecture. 
Compare  with  no  river.  Its  civilization  to  that  of  the  Nile  is 
recent  and  grand,  —  hence  no  river  may  rival. 

"  Our  steamer  was  Schiller.  I  saw  another  named  Goethe. 
I  had  forgotten  the  most  glorious  cathedral  of  Cologne,  and  a 
beautiful  picture  of  Jews  weeping  at  Babylon  in  the  Museum. 
The  choir  of  the  cathedral  is  indeed  a  '  vision ; '  a  single  har- 
mony of  the  boys  chanting  in  the  Strasburg  affected  me  more 
than  all  else ! 

"  Dogs  draw  little  carts  in  Belgium.     Cows  are  yoked  and 


1850.]  JOURNAL  — BASLE.  237 

draw  burthens  in  Prussia,  Baden,  Nassau.  "Women  labor  in 
all  the  fields.  Vines  are  led  over  the  cottages,  and  flowers 
planted  almost  up  to  the  rail  of  the  car. 

"  Here  at  Basle  our  hotel  stands  on  the  side  of  the  Rhine 
just  as  at  Cologne,  but  here  the  river  rushes  rapid  and  sound- 
ing, and,  till  fretted  and  swelled  by  this  rain,  its  color  was  a 
clear  green.  All  things  show  we  are  going  toward  his  sources, 
or  to  his  cradle  of  mountains,  and  to-morrow  we  approach  the 
Alps.  The  river  passes  out  of  view,  and  the  mountain  begins 
to  claim  its  own  worship.  From  my  window  I  see  the  flag 
of  the  U.  S.  hung  from  the  window  of  the  Consulate,  in  mourn- 
ing.1 I  have  visited  the  cathedral,  turned,  without  violence 
or  iconoclasm,  into  a  Protestant  church,  holding  the  grave  of 
Erasmus. 

"  Political  life  for  ever  is  ended.  Henceforth  the  law  and 
literature  are  all.  I  know  it  must  be  so,  and  I  yield  and  I 
approve.  Some  memorial  I  would  leave  yet,  rescued  from 
the  grave  of  a  mere  professional  man,  some  wise  or  beautiful 
or  interesting  page,  —  something  of  utility  to  America,  which 
I  love  more  every  pulse  that  beats. 

"  The  higher  charm  of  Europe  is  attributable  only  to  her 
bearing  on  her  bosom  here  and  there  some  memorials  of  a 
civilization  about  seven  or  eight  hundred  years  old.  Of  any 
visible  traces  of  any  thing  earlier  there  is  nothing.  All  earlier 
is  of  the  ancient  life,  —  is  in  books,  —  and  may  be  appropri- 
ated by  us,  as  well  as  by  her — under  God  —  and  by  proper 
helps.  The  gathering  of  that  eight  hundred  years,  however, 
collected  and  held  here,  —  libraries,  art,  famous  places,  educa- 
tional spectacles  of  architecture,  picture,  statue,  gardening, 
fountains,  —  are  rich,  rich,  and  some  of  them  we  can  never 
have  nor  use. 

"  On  how  many  European  minds  in  a  generation  is  felt, 
educationally,  the  influence  of  that  large  body  of  spectacle, 
specifically  European,  and  which  can  never  be  transferred  ? 
Recollect,  first,  that  all  her  books  we  can  have  among  us  per- 
manently. All  her  history  we  can  read  and  know,  therefore, 
and  all  things  printed.  What  remains  ?  What  that  can  never 
be  transferred  ?  Picture,  statue,  building,  grounds  ;  beyond 
and  above,  a  spirit  of  the  place  ;  whatsoever  and  all  which 
come  from  living  in  and  visiting  memorable  places.  How 
many  in  Europe  are  influenced,  and  how,  by  this  last  ?  The 

1  General  Taylor  died  July  9,  1860. 


238  MEMOIR   OF   EUFUS    CHOATE.         [CHAP.  VIL 

recorded  history  affects  us  as  it  does  them.  In  which  hemi- 
sphere would  an  imaginative  and  speculative  mind  most  enjoy 
itself?  In  America,  land  of  hope,  liberty,  —  Utopia  sobered, 
realized,  to  be  fitted  according  to  an  idea,  with  occasional 
visits  to  this  picture  gallery  and  museum,  occasional  studies 
here  of  the  objects  we  can't  have  ;  or  here,  under  an  inflexible 
realization,  inequalities  of  condition,  rank,  force,  property, 
tribute  to  the  Past,  —  the  Past ! ! ! 

"  Looking  to  classes  :  1st,  The  vast  mass  is  happier  and 
better  in  America,  is  worth  more,  rises  higher,  is  freer ;  its 
standard  of  culture  and  life  higher.  2.  Property  holders  are 
as  scarce.  3.  The  class  of  wealth,  taste,  social  refinement, 
and  genius,  —  how  with  them  ? 

"  Mem.  The  enjoyment  of  an  American  of  refined  tastes 
and  a  spirit  of  love  of  man  is  as  high  as  that  of  a  European 
of  the  same  class.  He  has  all  but  what  visits  will  give  him? 
and  he  has  what  no  visits  can  give  the  other. 

"  What  one  human  being,  not  of  a  privileged  class,  is  better 
off  in  Europe  than  he  would  be  in  America?  Possibly  a 
mere  scholar,  or  student  of  art,  seeking  learning  or  taste,  for 
itself,  to  accomplish  himself.  But  the  question  is,  if  in  any 
case,  high  and  low,  the  same  rate  of  mind,  and  the  same  kind 
of  mind,  may  not  be  as  happy  in  America  as  in  Europe.  It 
must  modify  its  aims  and  sources  somewhat,  live  out  of  itself, 
seek  to  do  good,  educate  others.  It  may  acquire  less,  teach 
more  ;  suck  into  its  veins  less  nutriment,  less  essence,  less  per- 
ception of  beauty,  less  relish  of  it  (this  I  doubt),  but  diffuse 
it  more. 

"  What  is  it  worth  to  live  among  all  that  I  have  seen  ?  I 
think  access  to  the  books  and  works  of  art  is  all.  There  is 
no  natural  beauty  thus  far  beyond  ours  —  and  a  storied 
country,  storied  of  battles  and  blood  —  is  that  an  educational 
influence  ? 

"  Monday,  Aug.  5.  —  Lucerne.  This  then  is  Switzerland. 
It  is  a  sweet,  burning  midsummer's  morning  at  Lucerne. 
Under  one  of  my  windows  is  a  little  garden  in  which  I  see 
currants,  cabbages,  pear-trees,  vines,  healthfully  growing. 
Before  me  from  the  other,  I  see  the  lake  of  Lucerne  — 
beyond  it  in  farthest  east  I  see  the  snowy  peaks  of  Alps  —  I 
count  some  dozen  distinct  summits  on  which  the  snow  is  lying, 
composing  a  range  of  many  miles.  On  my  extreme  right 
ascends  Mt.  Pilate  —  splintered  bare  granite,  and  on  the  other 
Righi,  high  and  bold,  yet  wooded  nearly  to  the  top.  It  is  a 


1850.J  JOURNAL  —  ZURICH.  239 

scene  of  great  beauty  and  interest  where  all  '  save  the  heart 
of  man '  may  seem  divine.  We  left  Basle  at  nine  on  Satur- 
day morning  and  got  to  Zurich  that  evening  at  six.  This 
ride  opened  no  remarkable  beauty  or  grandeur,  yet  possessed 
great  interest.  It  was  performed  in  a  Diligence  —  the  old 
Continental  stage-coach.  And  the  impression  made  through 
the  whole  day  or  until  we*  approached  Zurich,  was  exactly 
that  of  a  ride  in  the  coach  from  Hanover  to  the  White 
Hills.  I  ascribe  this  to  the  obvious  circumstances  that  we 
were  already  far  above  the  sea,  were  ascending  along  the 
bank  of  a  river,  the  Rhine,  and  then  a  branch  which  met  us 
rushing  full  and  fast  from  its  mountain  sources  —  that  we 
were  approaching  the  base  of  mountains  of  the  first  class  in  a 
high  northern  latitude.  The  agricultural  productions  (ex- 
cept the  exotic  vine),  the  grass,  weeds  moderate ;  wheat  — 
clover  —  white  weed  —  the  construction  of  the  valley  —  the 
occasional  bends  and  intervals  —  all  seem  that  of  New  Eng- 
land. There  was  less  beauty  than  at  Newbury  and  Bath,  and 
I  think  not  a  richer  soil,  —  certainly  a  poorer  people.  They 
assiduously  accumulate  manure,  and  women  of  all  ages  were 
reaping  in  the  fields. 

"  Zurich  is  beautiful.  The  lake  extends  beautifully  to  the 
south  before  it.  Pleasant  gardens  and  orchards  and  heights 
lie  down  to  it  and  adjoining  it.  And  here  first  we  saw  the 
Alps  —  a  vast  chain.  The  Glaciers  ranging  from  east  to  west 
closing  the  view  to  the  south  —  their  peaks  covered  with  snow 
lay  along  as  battlements  unsupported  beneath  of  a  city  of  the 
sky  out  of  sight.  I  went  to  the  library  and  asked  for  Orelli. 
He  died  some  months  since.  Most  of  his  library  was  shown 
me  standing  by  itself  in  the  public  collection  —  and  the  few 
I  could  stay  to  look  at  were  excellent  and  recent  editions  of 
Greek  and  Latin  classics.  I  obtained  of  his  widow  three 
printed  thin  quartos  belonging  to  him  —  about  the  size  of  a 
commencement  thesis  —  in  Latin. 

"  All  things  in  Zurich  announce  Protestantism  —  activity 
of  mind.  The  University  —  the  books  —  the  learned  men  — 
the  new  buildings  —  the  prosperity. 

"  I  shall  never  forget  the  sweet  sensations  with  which  I 
rode  the  first  five  or  ten  miles  from  Zurich  yesterday.  It 
was  Sunday.  The  bells  of  Zurich  were  ringing,  —  including 
that  honored  by  the  preaching  of  Zwingle,  —  and  men, 
women,  and  children  were  dressed,  and  with  books  were 
going  to  meeting.  Our  way  lay  for  some  time  along  the 


240  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS  CHOATE.      [CHAP.  VH. 

shores  of  the  lake,  through  gardens,  orchards,  and  fields  to 
the  water's  edge ;  many  of  them  of  the  highest  beauty. 
Then  it  left  the  lake  to  ascend  the  Albis.  This  is  an  ex- 
cellent road,  but  to  overcome  the  mountain  its  course  is  zig- 
zag and  is  practicable  only  for  a  walk  of  the  horses.  I  got 
out  and  ascended  on  foot,  crossing  from  one  terrace  of  road  to 
another  by  paths  through  pleasant  woods.  As  I  ascended,  the 
whole  valley  of  Zurich  —  the  city  —  the  lake  in  its  whole 
length  —  the  amphitheatre  of  country  enclosing  it  —  the 
glorious  Alps,  and  at  last  Righi  and  Pilate  standing  like  the 
speaker's  place  in  a  Lyceum  with  an  audience  of  mountains 
vastly  higher  —  rising  into  the  peculiar  pinnacle  of  the  Alps 
covered  with  snow,  ascending  before  them  —  successively 
evolved  itself.  I  saw  over  half  of  Switzerland.  Spread  on 
it  all  was  the  sweet,  not  oppressive,  unclouded  summer's  sun- 
light. A  pure  clear  air  enfolded  it — the  Sunday  of  the  pas- 
toral, sheltered,  and  happy  world.  In  some  such  scenes  the 
foundations  of  the  Puritan  mind  and  polity  were  laid, — 
scenes,  beautiful  by  the  side  of  Tempe  and  Arcady  —  fit  as 
they  to  nurse  and  shelter  all  the  kinds  of  liberty. 

"  We  descended  to  Zug  and  its  lake,  and  then  coasted  it  to 
Lucerne.  Last  evening  we  visited  the  emblematical  lion  and 
sailed  on  the  lake.  To-day  I  go  to  the  chapel  of  Tell.  The 
first  view  of  the  peculiar  sharp  points  of  Alps  was  just  from 
the  very  top  of  Albis  on  the  southwest  brow.  There  rose 
Righi  and  Pilate,  and  east — apart  and  above  —  a  sort  of 
range  or  city  of  the  tents  of  an  encampment  in  the  sky. 
They  rested  on  nothing  and  seemed  architecture  of  heaven 
—  pavilions  —  the  tents  of  a  cavalcade  travelling  above  the 
earth. 

"  Jlerne,  Wednesday  1th.  —  We  left  Lucerne  at  seven  in 
our  own  hired  voiture,  and  with  one  change  of  horses  treating 
ourselves  to  two  long  pauses,  arrived  here  at  eight  o'clock  — 
the  last  two  hours  through  a  thunder  shower.  The  way  gave 
me  much  of  the  common  and  average  life  of  Switzerland, 
lying  through  two  of  its  great  Cantons.  What  I  saw  of  Lu- 
cerne disappointed  me.  The  soil  I  should  think  cold  and 
ungrateful  and  the  mind  of  the  laborer  not  open.  Crucifixes 
everywhere,  and  all  over  every  thing  —  weeds  in  corn  and 
grass.  Once  in  Berne  all  changes.  »Man  does  his  duty.  Ex- 
cellent stone  bridges  ;  good  fences  ;  fewer  weeds  ;  more  wheat 
and  grass  ;  more  look  of  labor ;  better  buildings  ;  better,  newer, 
larger  houses  and  barns ;  no  crucifixes ;  express  the  change. 


1850.]  JOURNAL  — BERNE.  241 

Throughout  I  find  a  smallish,  homely  race,  and  pursue  the 
dream  of  Swiss  life  in  vain.  Yet  in  these  valleys,  on  the 
sides  of  these  hills,  in  these  farm  housed  scattered  far  and 
near,  though  all  is  cut  off  from  the  great  arterial  and  venous 
system  of  the  world  of  trade  and  influence  —  though  the 
great  pulse  of  business  and  politics  beats  not  —  though  life 
might  seem  to  stagnate  —  is  happiness  and  goodness  too. 
Sometimes  a  high  Swiss  mind  emerges,  and  speaking  a  for- 
eign or  dead  tongue,  —  or  migrating,  asserts  itself.  Berne  is 
full  of  liveliness  and  recency  as  well  as  eld.  I  have  run 
over  it  before  breakfast  and  shall  again  before  we  go. 

"  I  saw  at  Berne  the  place  of  the  -State  bears,  and  two  of 
the  pensioners  —  the  high  terraced  ground  of  view  —  the 
residence  of  the  patricians  —  and  the  Cathedral,  containing, 
among  other  things,  tablets  to  the  memory  of  those  who  fell 
in  1798,  enumerating  them,  —  and  the  painted  windows  of 
Protestant  satire.  Our  journey  to  Vevay  had  little  interest, 
a  grim  horizon  of  cloud  and  a  constant  fall  of  rain  wholly 
obscured  the  Alps.  Freiburg  is  striking  —  its  suspended 
bridge  sublime  —  and  it  holds  one  of  the  best  organs  of  the 
world.  We  arrived  here  [Vevay]  at  ten  and  1  have  this 
morning  looked  out  on  the  whole  beauty  of  this  part  of  the 
lake  —  from  Hauteville  and  from  a  point  on  the  shore  above 
it  and  towards  the  direction  of  Chillon,  —  and  admitted  its 
supreme  interest,  and  its  various  physical  and  associated 
beauty.  The  day  is  clear  and  warm  and  still.  The  slightest 
breeze  stirs  the  surface  of  the  lake,  light  clouds  curl  half  way 
up  the  steep  shores  —  float  —  vanish  —  and  are  succeeded  by 
others  —  a  summer's  sun  bathes  a  long  shore  and  inland  rising 
from  the  shore,  clad  thick  with  vines  ;  —  yonder,  looking  to 
the  south-east  upon  the  water  —  in  that  valley  —  sheltered 
by  the  mountain  —  nestling  among  those  trees  —  embraced 
and  held  still  in  the  arms  of  universal  love  is  Clarens  —  fit, 
unpolluted  asylum  of  love  and  philosophy ;  before  it,  on  its 
left,  is  the  castle  of  Chillon ;  more  directly  before  it  the 
mouth  of  the  Rhone,  here  resting  a  space  in  his  long  flight 
from  his  glacier-source ;  far  off  west  stretched  the  Lake  of 
Geneva  at  peace  —  here  and  there  a  white  sail  —  the  home  — 
the  worship  —  the  inspiration  of  Rousseau  and  De  Stael  — 
the  shelter  of  liberty  —  the  cradle  of  free  thinking  —  the 
scene  in  which  the  character  and  fortunes  of  Puritanism 
were  shaped  and  made  possible  —  the  true  birthplace  of  the 
civil  and  religious  order  of  the  northern  New  World. 

16 


242  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS   CHOATE.          [CHAP.  VH. 

"  Geneva,  $th  August,  Friday.  —  The  lake  was  smooth  and 
bright,  and  our  voyage  of  five  hours  pleasant  and  prosperous  ; 
and  we  had  the  extraordinary  fortune  to  witness  what  we  are 
assured  was  the  best  sunset  on  Mont  Blanc  for  years.  Long 
after  the  sun  had  sunk  below  our  earth,  the  whole  range  of 
the  mountain  was  in  a  blaze  with  the  descending  glory.  At 
first  it  was  a  mere  reflection,  from  a  long  and  high  surface,  of 
the  sun's  rays.  Gradually  this  passed  into  a  golden  and 
rosy  hue,  then  all  darkened  except  the  supreme  summit  itself, 
from  which  the  gold-light  flashed,  beamed,  some  time  longer  ; 
one  bright  turret  of  the  building  not  made  with  hands,  kin- 
dled from  within,  self-poised,  or  held  by  an  unseen  hand. 
Under  our  feet  ran  the  Rhone,  leaping,  joyful,  full,  blue, 
to  his  bed  in  the  Mediterranean.  Before  us  is  the  city 
of  thought,  liberty,  power,  influence,  the  beautiful  and  famous 
Geneva.  More  than  all  in  interest  was  the  house  of  the 
father  of  Madame  de  Stael,  and  the  home  of  the  studies  of 
Gibbon. 

"Paris,  Aug.  18. —  I  went  on  Saturday,  Aug.  10,  to  the 
nearer  contemplation  of  Mont  Blanc,  at  Chamouny.  Most  of 
that  journey  lies  through  Savoy,  of  the  kingdom  of  Sardinia, 
even  as  far  as  St.  Martin,  and  beyond  somewhat,  a  well-con- 
structed royal  road.  Within  the  first  third,  I  should  think  of 
the  day's  ride  out  from  Geneva,  and  long  before  Mont  Blanc 
again  reveals  himself  (for  you  lose  sight  of  him  wholly  in  a 
mile  or  two  out  of  the  city),  you  enter  a  country  of  much 
such  scenery  as  the  Notch  of  the  White  Mountains.  An  ex- 
cellent road  ascends  by  the  side  of  the  Arve,  itself  a  mad, 
eager  stream,  leaping  from  the  mer  de  glace,  and  running 
headlong,  of  the  color  of  milk  mixed  with  clay,  to  the  Rhone, 
below  Geneva,  on  each  side  of  which  rise  one  after  another, 
a  succession  of  vast  heights,  some  a  half-mile  to  a  mile  above 
you,  all  steep,  more  than  even  perpendicular,  and  even  hang- 
ing over  you,  as  projecting  beyond  their  base.  These  are  so 
near,  and  your  view  so  unobstructed,  and  they  are  all  of  a 
height  so  comprehensible  and  appreciable,  so  to  speak,  so 
little  is  lost  by  an  unavailing  elevation,  that  they  make  more 
impression  than  a  mountain  five  times  as  high.  It  is  exactly  as 
in  the  Notch,  where  the  grandeur  instead  of  being  enthroned 
remote,  dim,  and  resting  in  measurement,  and  demanding 
comparisons  and  thoughts,  is  near,  palpable,  and  exacting. 
Down  many  of  these  streamed  rivulets  of  water,  silver  threads 
of  hundreds,  perhaps  of  thousands,  of  feet  long  from  source 


1850.]  JOURNAL  —  CHAMOUNY.  243 

to  base  of  cliff;  often  totally  floating  off  from  the  side  of  the 
hill  and  the  bed  in  which  they  had  begun  to  run,  in  a  mere 
mist  which  fell  like  rain,  and  farther  down,  and  to  the  right 
or  left  of  the  original  flow,  were  condensed  again  into  mere 
streams.  These  have  no  character  of  waterfall  as  you  ride 
along,  but  discharge  a  great  deal  of  water  in  a  very  pictu- 
resque, holiday,  and  wanton  fashion.  This  kind  of  scenery 
grows  bolder  and  wilder,  and  at  last  and  suddenly  at  St.  Martin 
we  saw  again,  above  it,  and  beyond  it  all,  the  range  of  Mont 
Blanc,  covered  with  snow,  and  at  first  its  summit  covered  too 
with  clouds.  Thenceforth  this  was  ever  in  view,  and  some 
hours  before  sunset  the  clouds  lifted  themselves  and  vanished, 
and  we  looked  till  all  was  dark  upon  the  unvailed  summit 
itself.  Again  we  had  a  beautiful  evening  sky ;  again,  but 
this  time  directly  at  the  foot  of  the  mountain  we  stood,  and 
watched  the  surviving,  diminishing  glory,  and  just  as  that 
faded  from  the  loftiest  peak,,  and  it  was  night,  I  turned  and 
saw  the  new  moon  opposite,  within  an  hour  of  setting  in  the 
west.  From  all  this  glory,  and  at  this  elevation,  my  heart 
turned  homeward,  and  I  only  wished  that  since  dear  friends 
could  not  share  this  here,  I  could  be  by  their  side,  and  Mont 
Blanc  a  morning's  imagination  only. 

"  My  health  hindered  all  ascensions.  I  lay  in  bed  on  Sun- 
day, reading  a  little,  dreaming  more,  walked  to  the  side  of 
one  glacier,  and  on  Monday  returned  to  Geneva  to  recruit. 
After  a  day  of  nursing,  we  on  Wednesday,  14th  August, 
started  for  Paris,  and  arrived  last  evening.  Our  first  three 
days  was  by  post-horses  and  a  hired  carriage,  and  brought  us 
to  Tonnerre.  The  first  day  ended  at  Champagnole,  and  was 
a  day  of  ascending  and  descending  Jura.  We  passed  through 
Coppet  however,  and  I  had  the  high  delight  of  visiting  the 
chateau  and  the  grounds  which  were  the  home  of  Madame  de 
Stael,  and  of  looking,  from  a  distance  still,  on  the  tomb  where 
she  is  buried.  The  chateau  could  not  be  entered,  but  it 
is  large,  looks  well,  and  beholds  the  lake  directly  before  it, 
spread  deliciously  to  the  right  and  left.  I  walked  up  and 
down  the  grounds,  and  over  a  path  where  she  habitually 
walked  and  wrote,  and  thought  and  burned  with  the  love 
of  fame  and  France,  —  and  plucked  a  leaf.  She  helped  to 
shape  my  mind,  and  to  store  and  charm  it.  My  love  for  her 
began  in  college,  growing  as  I  come  nearer  to  the  hour  when 
such  tongues  must  cease,  and  such  knowledge  vanish  away. 
Almost  in  sight  was  Lausanne.  Jura  is  climbed  by  a  noble 


244  MEMOIR   OF  RUFUS   CHOATE.         [CHAP.  VII. 

road  which,  if  possible,  grows  better  all  the  way  to  Tonnerre. 
Both  sides  seem  cold,  and  wooded,  not  grateful  to  the  hus- 
bandman ;  and,  upon  the  whole,  the  country  till  we  left  the 
Jura  at  Poligny  was  not  interesting.  A  French  fortification 
is  building  on  the  line,  —  beggary  ceased  instantly,  —  some 
saw-mills  to  manufacture  timber,  —  and  for  the  rest  it  is  a 
moderately  good  farming  country. 

"  At  Poligny  a  new  image  !  The  vast  plain  of  Franche- 
Comte,  and  then  of  Burgundy  opened  before  us,  and  for  near 
two  whole  days,  and  a  hundred  miles,  we  rode  through  vast 
fields  of  excellent  Indian  corn,  and  then  through  the  great 
grape  region,  all  productive  of  famous  wine ;  some  rare  and 
privileged  spots,  the  cote  du  vin,  productive  of  the  most  re- 
nowned wine  in  the  world.  Generally  the  eye  turned  every 
way  on  a  plain.  On  this  rose  some  undulations,  and  these 
grew  more  and  more  numerous  as  we  approached  the  hither 
limit  of  Burgundy.  And  this  plain,  thus  undulating,  some- 
times rising  to  hills,  was  covered  all  over  with  the  two,  not 
kindred,  yet  not  dissimilar,  and  both  rich,  harvests  of  maize 
and  vine.  Peace,  quiet  labor,  good  husbandry,  and  an  ample 
return,  a  peasantry  of  good-looking  men  and  women,  and 
well-clad  children,  large  houses,  whereof  barn  is  part,  the 
name  and  history  of  Burgundy,  all  together  left  an  image 
sweet,  peculiar,  memorable. 

"  Quentin  Durward,  Louis  XI.,  Philip  de  Comines,  Charles 
the  Bold,  the  whole  Ducal  life,  the  whole  vast  struggle  of 
centralization,  seem  henceforth  to  have  a  clearer  significance, 
and  a  more  real  inherence  in  locality.  Dijon  is  full  of  the 
Ducal  name  and  being.  At  Montbard,  my  dining-room  win- 
dow looked  on  the  solitary  tower-study  of  Buffon,  a  sight  of 
deep  and  sad  interest.  At  Tonnerre  we  took  the  rail,  and 
soon  the  valley  of  the  Saone  and  Rhone,  the  slope  to  the 
Mediterranean  was  left  behind,  and  we  came  upon  the  tribu- 
taries of  the  Seine,  the  waters  of  the  Cote  d'Or,  and  of  the 
English  Channel.  Two  hours  we  gave  to  Fontainebleau. 
With  a  different,  and  in  some  respects  less  interest  than  Ver- 
sailles, it  has  a  charm  of  its  own.  There  is  the  private  life 
of  French  kings.  St.  Louis,  Louis  XIII.,  Francis  I.,  Henry 
IV.,  Louis  XV.,  Napoleon,  —  are  there  enfamille.  the  home 
of  kings.  The  spot  of  the  '  Adieux  at  Fontainebleau,'  near 
the  foot  of  the  staircase  in  the  court,  the  table  of  the  signing 
of  the  abdication  ;  his  throne,  his  bedroom,  the  dining-hall, 
the  chapel  of  the  two  marriages  (of  Louis  XV.,  and  of  the 


1850.]  JOURNAL  —  ENGLAND.  245 

late  Duke  of  Orleans,  whose  tomb  I  have  just  visited),  the 
glorious  Gobelins,  old  and  new,  the  hall  of  Henry  and  Diana 
(of  Poictiers),  and  of  Francis,  the  gardens  behind,  the  strik- 
ing of  the  clock,  —  all  are  worth  a  sight,  a  hearing,  a  mem- 
ory, a  sigh. 

"  This  approach  to  Paris  is  beautiful.  The  valley  of  the 
Seine,  stretching  as  far  as  the  sight,  the  vine  everywhere,  yet 
flocks  of  sheep,  rye-fields,  forests  of  royal  chase  interspersed 
and  contrasted,  and  at  last  the  dome  of  the  Invalides,  and 
the  solemn  towers  of  Notre  Dame,  —  these  are  its  general 
spectacle  and  its  particular  images  some  of  them. 

"  To-day  I  have  attended  vespers  at  St.  Denis,  and  have 
visited  the  tomb  of  the  Duke  of  Orleans.  They  showed  us 
the  restored  series  of  the  French  royal  dead,  and  gave  us  the 
loud  and  low  of  the  grandest  organ ;  and  then  I  saw  at  the 
chapel,  which  is  the  tomb  of  the  Duke,  such  a  mingling  of 
sharp  grief ;  parents  and  brothers  in  agony  for  the  first-born, 
and  the  dearly  loved  ;  the  son,  brother,  and  heir-apparent, 
with  crushed  hopes  ;  perishing  dynasties ;  as  few  other  spots 
of  earth  may  show.  If  Thiers  and  Guizot  were  there,  their 
thoughts  might  wander  from  the  immediate  misery  to  the 
possible  results  ;  they  might  reflect  that  not  only  the  imme- 
diate heir,  but  the  only  loved  of  France  of  that  line  was 
dying.  The  organ  was  played  just  enough  to  show  what 
oceans  and  firmaments  full  of  harmony  are  there  accumulated. 
Some  drops,  some  rivulets,  some  grandest  peals  we  heard, 
identifying  it,  and  creating  longings  for  more.  The  first  time 
I  have  seen  a  Louis  XI.  was  in  that  royal  cemetery.  He 
wears  a  little,  low  hat,  over  a  face  of  sinister  sagacity. 

u  Cambridge,  1st  September.  —  Since  I  came  to  Dover 
(Aug.),  my  whole  time  has  passed  like  a  sweet  yet  exhausting 
dream.  England  never  looked  to  any  eye,  not  filial,  so  sweet 
as  I  found  it  from  Dover  to  London.  It  was  the  harvest 
home  of  Kent;  and  the  whole  way  was  through  one  great 
field  —  through  a  thousand  rather  —  some  nodding  yellow 
and  white,  waiting  the  sickle  ;  some  covered  with  the  fallen 
and  partially  gathered  grain  ;  some  showing  a  stubble  — 
extensive  —  the  numerous  and  large  stacks  shaped  and  clus- 
tered as  houses  in  villages,  embodying  the  yield  ;  some  green 
with  hops,  grass,  turnips  ;  everywhere  glorious  groves  of  great 
trees  ;  everywhere  trees  standing  large,  hale,  independent,  — 
one  vast,  various,  yet  monotonous  image  of  the  useful,  plain, 


246  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS  CHOATE.         [CHAP.  VII. 

rich,  and  scientific  agriculture  of  England.  Came  to  London. 
I  saw  the  interior  of  St.  Paul's,  the  parks ;  heard  in  some 
fashionable  ladies'  society  a  story  or  two  of  Brougham  ;  heard 
Grisi  and  Mario  in  three  operas,  —  Norma :  another  by  Don- 
izetti, comic,  but  a  reckless  squandering  of  delicious  music  on 
a  story  of  a  lover  seeking  a  potion  to  make  him  loved ;  and 
finally  Don  Giovanni ;  the  trio,  and  the  solo  of  Mario,  by  far 
the  best  music  I  ever  heard  in  that  kind.  Mario  is  handsome 

—  voluptuously  ;  his  voice  flexible,  firm,  rich  as  a  clarionet. 
"  But  from  London  what  have  I  not  seen  !     Twickenham  ; 

Pope's  Grotto  —  the  views  through  it  —  Richmond  Hill,  and 
its  wealth  of  beautiful  aspects ;  Hampton  Court,  so  glorious 
in  its  exterior  of  trees,  grounds,  avenue,  park  —  so  disap- 
pointing within,  yet  leaving  an  impression  of  William  III.; 
Kensington,  known  to  the  world  as  a  great,  useful,  botanic 
garden  ;  Gray's  home  and  poetical  nourishments  —  the  church- 
yard, ivy  tower  —  mouldering  heaps  —  yew-tree  —  his  own 
monument,  his  view  of  Eton  —  the  ride  to  and  fro  —  the 
most  intensely  rural  England  ;  Eton  itself —  the  palace  and 
the  matchless  prospect  from  the  keep  ;  Windsor  forest.  Old 
Windsor  —  the  valley  of  the  Thames,  and  all  the  scenes 
which  the  Augustan  poetry  of  England  loved,  by  which  it 
was  fed  and  stimulated,  on  which  a  greater  than  that  school 
loved  to  look,  and  has  done  something  to  endear  and  to 
immortalize. 

"  When  this  was  done,  there  was  left  to  see  the  University 

—  physical  and  mental  architecture  of  England.     I  am  glad 
I  went  first  to  Oxford.     I  am  doubly  and  for  ever  grateful 
and  glad,  that  the  last  great  impression  I  shall  take  and  hold 
of  England  is  to  be  that  conveyed  by  the  University  of  Cam- 
bridge.    This  day,  Sunday,  I  have  passed  here  at  Cambridge, 
with  perhaps  as  keen  and  as  various  a  pleasure  as  I  ever  felt, 

—  except  at  home,  or  in  a  book.     But  I  begin  with  Oxford. 
The  country  on  the  way  disappointed  me  in  the  first  place. 
The  whole  city  and  the  Colleges  did  so,  even  more  cruelly, 
in  the  next  place.     Something  I  ascribe  to  the  day,  —  dark 
and  cold,  —  but  not  much.     The  Isis  does  nothing  for  Oxford, 
that  I  could  see,  though  some  of  the  college  walks  are  on  its 
meadows.     The  exterior  of  the  Colleges,  so  far  as  I  saw,  was 
not  old  only  —  that  was  well  —  but  all  old,  only  old,  grim, 
and  with  a  worn  and  neglected  look,  as  if  the  theory  were  to 
keep  for  ever  before  the  eye  the  old,  old  time  and  art  and 
product,  un  warmed,  unacidulated,  unenlivened  by  the  circula- 


1850.]  JOURNAL  — CAMBRIDGE.  247 

tion  of  a  drop  of  later  life.  I  visited,  however,  the  dining-hall 
of  Christ  Church,  and  its  chapel  and  library,  with  interest, 
yet  oppressed  at  every  step  with  —  I  know  not  what  —  of  the 
retrograding  or  stationary  and  narrow  and  ungenial  in  opinion, 
in  policy,  in  all  things.  The  Bodleian  impressed  by  its  regal 
wealth  and  spaciousness.  Altogether  it  seemed  a  place  for 
rest,  for  inertness,  for  monastic  seclusion,  for  a  dream,  and  a 
sigh  after  the  irrevocable  past. 

"  This  day  at  Cambridge  has  been  such  a  contrast  that  I 
distrust  myself.  The  country  from  London,  in  spite  of  heavy 
cloud  and  chill,  was  beautiful,  —  an  undulating  and  apparently 
rich  surface,  strongly  suggestive  of  the  best  of  Essex  and 
Middlesex.  The  impression  made  by  the  University  portion 
of  Cambridge  I  can  scarcely  analyze.  The  architecture  is 
striking.  The  old  is  kept  in  repair ;  the  new  harmonizes,  and 
is  intrinsically  beautiful,  so  that  here  seems  a  reconciliation 
of  past,  present,  and  of  the  promise  of  the  future.  Conser- 
vation and  progress  —  the  old,  beautified,  affectionately  and 
gracefully  linked  to  the  present  —  an  old  field  of  new  corn 
—  the  new  recalling  the  old,  filial,  reverential,  yet  looking 
forward  —  running,  running  a  race  of  hope.  The  new  part 
of  St.  John  is  beautiful ;  all  of  King's  is  striking,  too.  I 
attended  the  cathedral  service  in  King's  Chapel,  as  striking 
as  St.  George's  in  London,  and  then  for  a  few  minutes  went 
to  the  University  Chapel,  and  again  to  All  Saints'  to  see  the 
tablet  and  statue  of  Kirke  White.  The  courts,  buildings,  and 
grounds  of  Trinity  are  beautiful  and  impressive ;  and  in  my 
life  I  have  never  been  filled  by  a  succession  of  sweeter,  more 
pathetic,  more  thrilling  sensations  than  in  looking  from  the 
window  of  Newton's  room,  walking  in  his  walks,  recalling  the 
series  of  precedent,  contemporaneous,  and  subsequent  com- 
panionship of  great  names  whose  minds  have  been  trained 
here,  and  which  pale  and  fade  before  his !  The  grounds  of 
Trinity,  St.  John,  St.  Peter,  are  the  finest  I  have  seen  ;  the 
two  former  on,  and  each  side  of,  the  Cam,  which  is  bridged  by 
each  college  more  than  once,  divided  and  conducted  around 
and  through  the  gardens,  so  as  artificially  to  adorn  them 
more,  and  to  be  made  safe  against  inundation,  —  the  latter 
not  reaching  to  the  river,  but  even  more  sweet  and  redolent 
of  more  and  more  careful  and  tasteful  and  modern  horti- 
culture. I  seem  to  find  here  an  image  of  the  true  and  the 
great  England.  Here  is  a  profusion  of  wealth,  accumulated 
and  appropriated  for  ages,  to  a  single  and  grand  end,  —  the 


248  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS   CHOATE.          [CHAP.  VH. 

advancement  of  knowledge  and  the  imparting  of  knowledge. 
It  is  embodied  to  the  eye  in  a  city  of  buildings,  much  of  it 
beautiful,  all  of  it  picturesque  and  impressive,  and  in  grounds 
shaded,  quiet,  fittest  seats  of  learning  and  genius.  Something 
there  is  of  pictures  ;  great  libraries  are  here.  Learned  men, 
—  who  are  only  the  living  generation  of  a  succession  which, 
unbroken,  goes  back  for  centuries,  and  comprehends  a  vast 
proportion  of  the  mind  of  the  nation  in  all  its  periods,  —  in 
increasing  numbers,  tenant  these  walls,  and  are  penetrated 
by  these  influences.  A  union  of  the  old,  the  recent,  the 
present,  the  prediction  of  the  future,  imaged  in  the  buildings, 
in  the  grounds,  by  every  thing,  is  manifested,  —  giving  assur- 
ance and  a  manifestation  of  that  marked,  profound  English 
policy,  which  hi  all  things  acquires  but  keeps,  —  and  binds  the 
ages  and  the  generations  by  an  unbroken  and  electric  tie." 

The  Journal  abruptly  breaks  off  with  this  heartfelt 
tribute,  and  was  never  resumed. 

From  this  the  travellers  went  to  the  north  of 
England,  to  Edinburgh,  Abbotsford,  Glasgow,  and 
through  the  lowlands  of  Scotland,  and  embarking  at 
Liverpool,  reached  home  in  September. 


1850-1855.]  FUGITIVE   SLAVE  LAW.  249 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

1850-1855. 

Political  Excitement  —  Union  Meetings  —  Address  on  Washington, 
Feb.  1851  —  The  Case  of  Fairchild  v.  Adams  —  Address  before  the 
"  Story  Association "  —  Webster  Meeting  in  Faneuil  Hall,  Nov. 
1851  —  Argues  an  India-Rubber  Case  in  Trenton  —  Baltimore 
Convention,  June,  1852 — Address  to  the  Phi  Beta  Kappa  Society, 
Burlington,  Vt.  —  Journey  to  Quebec  — Death  of  Mr.  Webster  — 
Letter  to  E.  Jackson  —  Letter  to  Harvey  Jewell,  Esq. — Letter  to 
Mrs.  Eames  —  Offer  of  the  Attorney-Generalship  —  Convention  to 
revise  the  Constitution  of  Massachusetts  —  Eulogy  on  Daniel 
Webster,  at  Dartmouth  College  —  Letter  to  his  Daughter  —  Let- 
ters to  Mrs.  Eames  —  Letter  to  Mr.  Everett  —  Letters  to  his  Son 
—  Letters  to  his  Daughter  —  Address  at  the  Dedication  of  the 
Peabody  Institute,  Sept.  1854  —  Letters  to  Mr.  Everett  —  Letter 
to  Mrs.  Eames  —  Accident  and  Illness  —  Letters  to  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Eames. 

THE  state  of  the  country  in  1850  was  such  as  to 
cause  great  anxiety  among  thoughtful  men.  The 
whole  year  was  marked  by  a  political  excitement 
second  only  in  intensity  to  that  which  has  since  pro- 
duced such  momentous  results.  The  acquisition  of 
new  territory  from  Mexico  re-opened  the  question  of 
slavery.  On  the  7th  of  March,  Mr.  Webster  made 
his  memorable  speech  on  "the  Constitution  and  the 
Union."  The  law  for  the  return  of  fugitive  slaves 
excited  much  opposition  among  a  portion  of  the  peo- 
ple at  the  North,  while  at  the  South  there  was  wide- 
spread apprehension  and  discontent.  This  feeling 


250  MEMOIR  OF   RUFUS   CHOATE.        [CHAP.  VIII. 

was  exasperated  in  both  parts  of  the  country,  by 
intemperate  harangues,  and  inflammatory  appeals 
through  the  newspapers.  The  excitement  became  at 
last  so  strong,  that  judicious  and  conservative  men  felt 
bound  to  protest  against,  and,  if  possible,  allay  it. 
Accordingly,  Union  meetings  were  held  in  different 
States,  —  in  Alabama,  Kentucky,  Ohio,  New  York, 
Pennsylvania,  New  Hampshire,  and  Massachusetts, 
—  and  sound  men  of  all  parties  united  to  deprecate 
the  disloyal  and  hostile  sentiments  which  were  too 
frequently  heard.  The  meeting  in  Boston  was  held 
in  Faneuil  Hall,  on  the  26th  of  November.  It  was 
opened  by  Hon.  Benjamin  R.  Curtis,  with  an  address 
of  great  compactness  and  power,  and  closed  with  a 
speech  from  Mr.  Choate  replete  with  profound  feeling 
as  .well  as  broad  and  generous  patriotism ;  far-sighted 
and  wise  in  pointing  out  the  dangers  of  the  Republic, 
and  earnest  and  solemn,  even  beyond  his  wont,  in 
exhortation  to  avoid  them. 

In  February,  1851,  Mr.  Choate  delivered,  in  Charles- 
town,  an  address  on  Washington.  He  repeated  it  in 
Boston.  It  was  marked  by  his  usual  fervor,  and 
afforded  him  another  opportunity  of  dwelling  upon 
that  public  virtue  which  he  feared  was  losing  its  high 
place  and  honor.  An  extract  of  a  few  pages  will 
show  its  spirit. 

"  In  turning  now,"  he  said,  "  to  some  of  the  uses 
to  which  this  great  example  may  contribute,  I  should 
place  among  the  first  this,  to  which  I  have  this 
moment  made  allusion  ;  that  is,  that  we  may  learn  of 
it  how  real,  how  lofty,  how  needful,  and  how  beauti- 
ful a  virtue  is  patriotism. 


1850-1855.]  ADDRESS   ON  WASHINGTON.  251 

"  It  is  among  the  strangest  of  all  the  strange  things 
we  see  and  hear,  that  there  is,  so  earjy  in  our  history, 
a  class  of  moralists  among  us,  by  whom  that  duty, 
once  held  so  sacred,  which  takes  so  permanent  a  place 
in  the  practical  teachings  of  the  Bible,  which  Christ- 
ianity —  as  the  Christian  world  has  all  but  universally 
understood  its  own  religion  —  not  tolerates  alone,  but 
enjoins  by  all  its  sanctions,  and  over  which  it  sheds 
its  selectest  influences,  while  it  ennobles  and  limits  it ; 
which  literature,  art,  history,  the  concurrent  precepts 
of  the  wisest  and  purest  of  the  race  in  all  eras,  have 
done  so  much  to  enforce  and  adorn  and  regulate,  —  I 
mean  the  duty  of  loving,  with  a  specific  and  peculiar 
love,  our  own  country ;  of  preferring  it  to  all  others, 
into  which  the  will  of  God  has  divided  man ;  of  guard- 
ing the  integrity  of  its  actual  territory  ;  of  advancing 
its  power,  eminence,  and  consideration ;  of  moulding 
it  into  a  vast  and  indestructible  whole,  obeying  a 
common  will,  vivified  by  a  common  life,  identified  by  a 
single  soul ;  strangest  it  is,  I  say,  of  all  that  is  strange, 
we  have  moralists,  sophists,  rather,  of  the  dark  or 
purple  robe,  by  whom  this  master-duty  of  social  man 
is  virtually  and  practically  questioned,  yea,  dispar- 
aged. They  deal  with  it  as  if  it  were  an  old-fashioned, 
and  half-barbarous  and  vulgar  and  contracted  animal- 
ism, rather  than  a  virtue.  This  love  of  country  of 
yours,  they  say,  what  is  it,  at  last,  but  an  immoral  and 
unphilosophical  limitation  and  counteraction  of  the 
godlike  principle  of  universal  Benevolence?  These 
symbols  and  festal  days ;  these  processions,  and  mar- 
tial airs,  and  discourses  of  the  departed  great;  this 
endeared  name  of  America,  this  charmed  flag,  this 
memorial  column,  these  old  graves,  these  organic 


252  MEMOIR  OF  KUFUS  CHOATE.        [CHAP.  VIII. 

forms,  this  boasted  Constitution,  this  united  national 
existence,  this  ample  and  glorious  history  of  national 
progress,  these  dreams  of  national  fortune,  —  alas ! 
what  are  they  but  shams,  baubles,  playthings  for  the 
childhood  of  the  race  ;  nursery  ballads,  like  the  Old 
Testament ;  devices  of  vanity,  devices  of  crime,  smell- 
ing villainously  of  saltpetre ;  empty  plausibilities ; 
temporary  and  artificial  expedients,  say  hindrances, 
rather,  by  which  the  great  and  good,  of  all  hemi- 
spheres and  all  races,  are  kept  from  running  into  one 
another's  embraces  ;  and  man,  the  abstract,  ideal,  and 
subjective  conception  of  humanity,  after  having  been 
progressively  developed,  all  the  way  up,  from  the 
brain  of  a  fish,  is,  in  this  nineteenth  century,  sacrificed 
and  smothered  by  his  accidents !  Do  not  stoop  so  low 
as  to  be  a  Patriot.  Aspire  to  be  a  Philanthropist ! 
To  reform  your  country,  not  to  preserve  your  coun- 
try, is  the  highest  style  of  man,  nowadays.  Root  and 
branch  work  of  it,  is  the  word.  If  she  goes  to  pieces 
in  the  operation,  why,  her  time  had  come,  and  there 
is  an  end  of  an  old  song.  It  will  be  only  the  ancient 
myth  of  the  fall  of  man  and  expulsion  from  Paradise, 

—  nothing  but  a  stage  of  progress, — just  a  bursting 
into  a  new  life,  rather  different  from  the  old,  and 
more  of  it,  —  that  is  all ! ! 

"  It  would  be  easy  to  expose  the  emptiness,  pre- 
sumptuousness,  and  dangers  of  such  morality ;  but  I 
direct  you,  for  a  better  refutation,  always  to  the  life 
and  death  of  Washington.  Was  not  that  patriotism, 

—  virtue?     Was  it   not  virtue,  entitling  itself — in 
the   language   of    the    Christian   Milton  —  entitling 
itself,  after  this  mortal  change,  '  to  a  crown  among 
the  enthroned   gods   on   sainted  seats  ? '     Was  that 


1850-1855.]  ADDRESS  ON  WASHINGTON.  253 

patriotism  selfish  or  vain  or  bloody  or  contracted? 
Was  it  the  less  sublime  because  it  was  practical  and 
because  it  was  American?  This  making  of  a  new 
nation  in  a  new  world,  this  devising  of  instrumentali- 
ties, this  inspiration  of  a  spirit,  whereby  millions  of 
men,  through  many  generations  and  ages,  will  come 
one  after  another  to  the  great  gift  of  social  being, — 
shall  be  born  and  live  and  die  in  a  vast  brotherhood 
of  peace,  —  mental  and  moral  advancement,  and  recip- 
rocation of  succor  and  consolation,  in  life  and  death, 
—  what  attribute  of  grandeur,  what  element  of  su- 
preme and  transcendent  beneficence  and  benevolence 
does  it  lack?  Is  it  not  obedience  to  the  will  of  God? 
Does  not  He  decree  the  existence  of  separate  and 
independent  nations  on  the  earth?  Does  not  the 
structure  of  the  globe,  its  seas,  mountains,  deserts, 
varieties  of  heat,  cold,  and  productions ;  does  not  the 
social  nature  of  man,  the  grand  educational  necessi- 
ties and  intimations  of  his  being  ;  does  not  the  nature 
of  liberty ;  does  not  his  universal  history,  from  the 
birth  of  the  world  ;  do  not  all  things  reveal  it,  as  a 
fundamental  and  original  law  of  the  race,  —  this  dis- 
tribution into  several  National  Life  ?  Is  it  not  as 
profoundly  true  to-day  as  ever  ?  '  Nihil  est  enim  illi 
principi  Deo,  qui  omnem  hunc  mundum  regit,  quod 
quidem  in  terris  fiat,  acceptius  quam  concilia,  ccetusque 
hominum  jure  sociati,  quce  civitates  appellantur.'' l 

"Is  not  the  national  family  as  clear  an  appointment 
of  nature  and  nature's  God  as  the  family  of  the  hearth? 
Is  it  not  a  divine  ordinance,  even  as  love  of  parents 
and  love  of  children  ?  Nay,  is  it  not,  after  all,  the  only 
practical  agency  through  which  the  most  expansive 

1  Cic.  De  Rep.  vi.  13. 


254  MEMOIR   OF  RUFUS   CHOATE.         [CHAP.  VIII. 

love  of  Man  can  be  made  to  tell  on  Man  ?  And  if  so, 
if  the  end  is  commanded,  that  is,  if  the  existence  of. 
the  independent  and  entire  State  is  commanded,  are 
not  the  means  of  insuring  that  end  commanded  also  ? 
And  if  so,  are  not  the  traits,  the  deeds,  the  care, 
the  valor,  the  spirit  of  nationality,  the  obedience  to  the 
collective  will  and  reason  as  expressed  through  the 
prescribed  organic  form ;  are  not  all  these  sentiments, 
and  all  that  policy,  '  the  great  scenery,  the  heroic  feel- 
ings, the  blaze  of  ancient  virtue,  the  exalted  deaths,' 
which  are  directed  specifically  and  primarily  to  the 
creation  and  preservation  of  the  State,  —  are  they  not 
highest  in  the  scale  of  things  commanded?  Must 
not  'being,'  in  the  antithesis  of  Hooker,  go  before 
even  '  well  being '  ?  Away  then  with  this  spurious 
and  morbid  morality  of  the  purple  robe,  which  erects 
the  uses  of  some  particular,  moral,  or  social,  or  eco- 
nomical reform,  that  if  not  affected  to-day,  may  be 
to-morrow,  above  the  keeping  of  the  Republic,  which, 
once  descended  into  the  tomb  of  nations,  shall  rise 
not,  till  the  heavens  be  no  more  ;  which  dislocates 
impiously  the  fair  and  divinely  appointed  order  of  the 
duties,  which  thinks  it  savors  of  lettered  illumination, 
to  look  down  on  that  glorious  family  of  virtues -which 
holds  kingdbms  and  commonwealths  in  their  spheres. 
Give  me  back  rather,  give  back  to  America  rather,  — 
she  needs  it  yet,  for  a  century,  till  her  national  being, 
so  recent,  so  immature,  is  compacted  to  the  consistency 
of  pyramids, — give  her  back  rather  the  faith  and  the 
philosophy  of  that  day  which  prayed  in  every  pulpit 
for  the  arms  of  Washington ;  which  in  the  gorgeous 
orientalism  of  Robert  Hall,  say  rather  of  the  Scrip- 
ture itself,  believed  that,  guided  and  inspired  by  the 


1850-1855.]  ADDRESS    ON   WASHINGTON.  255 

Mighty  Hand,  his  hosts,  in  the  day  of  battle,  might 
have  their  eyes  opened,  to  behold  in  every  plain  and 
every  valley,  what  the  prophet  beheld  by  the  same 
illumination,  —  chariots  of  fire,  and  horses  of  fire; 
which  saw  in  his  escape  from  the  wasting  rifle-shot  of 
the  Monongahela,  a  prediction,  and  a  decree  of  some 
transcendent  public  service,  for  which  he  was  saved. 

"  To  form  and  uphold  a  State,  it  is  not  enough  that 
our  judgments  believe  it  to  be  useful ;  the  better  part 
of  our  affections  must  feel  it  to  be  lovely.  It  is  not 
enough  that  our  arithmetic  can  compute  its  value,  and 
find  it  high  ;  our  hearts  must  hold  it  priceless,  above 
all  things  rich  or  rare,  dearer  than  health  or  beauty, 
brighter  than  all  the  order  of  the  stars.  It  does  not 
suffice  that  its  inhabitants  should  seem  to  you  good 
men  enough  to  trade  with,  altogether  even  as  the  rest 
of  mankind  ;  ties  of  brotherhood,  memories  of  a  com- 
mon ancestry,  common  traditions  of  fame  and  justice, 
a  common  and  undivided  inheritance  of  rights,  liber- 
ties, and  renown,  —  these  things  must  knit  you  to  them 
with  a  distinctive  and  domestic  attraction.  It  is  not 
enough  that  a  man  thinks  he  can  be  an  unexceptionable 
citizen,  in  the  main,  and  unless  a  very  unsatisfactory 
law  passes.  He  must  admit,  into  his  bosom,  the  spe- 
cific and  mighty  emotion  of  patriotism.  He  must  love 
his  country,  his  whole  country,  as  the  place  of  his  birth 
or  adoption,  and  the  sphere  of  his  largest  duties  ;  as 
the  playground  of  his  childhood,  the  land  where  his 
fathers  sleep,  the  sepulchre  of  the  valiant  and  wise,  of 
his  own  blood  and  race  departed  ;  he  must  love  it  for 
the  long  labors  that  reclaimed  and  adorned  its  natural 
and  its  moral  scenery ;  for  the  great  traits  and  great 


256  MEMOIR  OF   RUFUS   CHO'ATE.       [CHAP.  VIII. 

virtues  of  which  it  has  been  the  theatre  ;  for  the  insti- 
tution and  amelioration  and  progress  that  enrich  it ; 
for  the  part  it  has  played  for  the  succor  of  the  nations. 
A  sympathy  indestructible  must  draw  him  to  it.  It 
must  be  of  power  to  touch  his  imagination.  All  the 
passions  which  inspire  and  animate  in  the  hour  of  con- 
flict must  wake  at  her  awful  voice/' 

In  the  earlier  part  of  this  year  Mr.  Choate  defended 
his  pastor,  Rev.  Dr.  Adams,  on  a  charge  of  slander. 
The  case  was  peculiar  and  presented  some  interesting 
points  for  the  clerical  profession  in  general.1 

"  The  action  of  Fairchild  v.  Adams  was  for  written 
and  verbal  slander.  Mr.  Fairchild,  while  pastor- of  a 
church  in  South  Boston,  became  a  member  of  the  Suf- 
folk South  Association  of  Ministers  ;  Rev.  Dr.  Adams 
being  also  a  member.  Mr.  Fairchild  was  privately 
charged  by  one  Rhoda  Davidson  with  being  the  father 
of  her  illegitimate  child ;  and  she  demanded  of  him 
a  considerable  sum  of  money.  He  paid  her  a  part  of 
what  she  demanded,  and  promised  to  pay  her  further 
sums,  and  wrote  her  a  letter  which  was  strongly  indic- 
ative of  the  truth  of  the  charge.  The  circumstances 
having  become  known  to  a  few  persons  in  his  society, 
he  asked  a  dismission,  under  a  threat  of  exposure, 
and  went  to  Exeter,  N.  H.,  where  he  was  installed  as 
a  pastor.  Having  learned,  soon  after  his  settlement 
there,  that  there  must  be  a  public  exposure  of  the 
affair,  he  attempted  to  commit  suicide.  Soon  after- 
wards an  ecclesiastical  council  met  at  Exeter,  which 

1  For  the  following  account  I  am  indebted  to  Hon.  R.  A.  Chap- 
man, late  Chief  Justice  of  the  Massachusetts  Supreme  Court,  one  of 
the  referees  before  whom  the  case  was  tried. 


1850-1855.]          CASE  OF  FAIRCHILD  v.  ADAMS.  257 

advised  that  he  should  be  dismissed  from  his  charge, 
and  degraded  from  the  ministry.  He  was  about  this 
time  indicted  at  Boston  for  adultery,  but  kept  out  of 
the  State,  and  was  not  taken  upon  the  warrant  till 
after  the  lapse  of  a  considerable  time.  He  finally  re- 
turned and  took  his  trial,  and  was  acquitted,  as  it  was 
understood,  because  the  testimony  of  the  witness 
Davidson  was  impeached.  After  this  acquittal  he  re- 
turned to  his  former  pursuit  in  South  Boston,  and 
received  a  call  to  settle  there.  A  council  was  con- 
vened, which  advised  his  settlement,  taking  the  ground 
that  his  acquittal  in  a  criminal  court  should  be  treated 
by  an  ecclesiastical  council  as  conclusive  evidence  of 
his  innocence.  From  this  position  Dr.  Adams. and 
other  members  of  the  association  always  dissented, 
and  refused  to  recognize  him  as  a  minister. 

"  Before  the  meeting  of  the  council  at  Exeter,  some 
discussion  had  taken  place  in  respect  to  the  standing 
of  Mr.  Fairchild  in  the  Suffolk  South  Association  ;  and 
it  had  been  arranged  that  the  association  should  be 
governed  by  the  result  of  that  council.  Accordingly, 
after  he  had  been  degraded  from  the  ministry,  the 
association  passed  a  vote,  reciting  that  result,  and  ex- 
pelling him  from  their  body.  After  he  had  been  again 
installed  in  South  Boston,  he  requested  of  the  associ- 
ation a  copy  of  the  vote  by  which  they  had  expelled 
him.  The  copy  was  accordingly  furnished  him,  after 
which  he  sent  them  a  communication  demanding  that 
they  should  rescind  the  vote  as  a  libel,  and  restore  him 
to  good  standing  as  a  member  ;  and  he  proposed  to 
appear  before  them,  and  offer  evidence  and  arguments 
on  the  question  of  rescinding  the  vote,  and  proposed 
to  some  of  the  members  to  make  inquiries  of  certain 

17 


258  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS  CHOATE.         [CHAP.  VIII. 

persons  in  respect  to  some  of  the  accusations  that  had 
been  made  against  him.  The  association  gave  him  a 
hearing,  and,  after  its  close,  each  of  the  members  was 
called  upon  to  give  an  opinion,  with  the  reasons  for  it. 
Among  others  Dr.  Adams  gave  his  vote  in  favor  of  a . 
resolution  adverse  to  the  restoration  of  Mr.  Fairchild, 
and  stated  verbally  his  reasons  for  it.  He  was  selected 
as  the  object  of  a  suit,  because  he  was  a  man  of  influ- 
ence, and  because  of  some  personal  feelings  ;  and  the 
written  slander  consisted  of  the  resolution  that  was 
passed,  and  the  verbal  slander  of  the  reasons  stated 
by  Dr.  Adams  for  believing  in  the  guilt  of  Mr.  Fair- 
child. 

"  The  cause  was  heard  before  referees  agreed  on 
by  the  parties,  and  several  very  interesting  questions 
arose  on  the  hearing.  Among  them  was  the  question 
to  what  extent  should  ministers  and  churches  be  influ- 
enced by  the  acquittal  of  a  man  charged  with  a  crime 
in  a  civil  court.  Mr.  Choate  contended  that  inasmuch 
as  the  rules  of  evidence  are  different  in  civil  and  eccle- 
siastical tribunals  ;  inasmuch  as  some  things  are  re- 
garded as  criminal  in  one  that  may  not  be  in  the  other; 
inasmuch  as  a  defendant  may  be  acquitted  by  the  jury 
from  mere  doubt,  or  from  collusion  of  the  party  with 
a  witness  who  suffers  his  testimony  to  be  broken 
down,  or  omits  to  disclose  the  whole  truth,  the  ver- 
dict ought  not  ipso  facto  to  restore  the  party,  but 
should  only  furnish  a  ground  of  consideration  for 
action.  The  debate  on  this  point  also  led  him  to  an 
investigation  of  the  constitution,  history,  and  usages 
of  Congregational  churches  and  associations  of  min- 
isters. 

"Another  question  was,  whether   associations   of 


1850-1855.]        CASE   OF  FAIRCHILD  v.  ADAMS.  259 

ministers  had  power  to  expel  their  members  for  alleged 
offences,  without  being  held  in  an  action  of  slander  to 
prove  to  a  jury  that  the  party  is  guilty.  On  the  part 
of  Mr.  Fairchild,  it  was  contended  that  these  bodies 
had  no  privileges  in  this  respect  beyond  that  of  the 
ordinary  slanderer,  who  utters  a  charge  of  crime 
against  his  neighbor  where  the  matter  does  not  con- 
cern him.  On  the  part  of  Dr.  Adams  it  was  contended 
that  the  case  came  within  the  class  called  privileged 
communications ;  that  is,  when  in  the  transaction  of 
business  or  the  discharge  of  a  duty,  one  person  has 
proper  occasion  to  speak  of  another,  and  in  good  faith 
and  without  malice  alleges  that  he  has  been  guilty  of 
a  crime.  In  such  cases  he  may  defend  himself  in  an 
action  for  slander  by  proving  that  he  thus  acted,  and 
without  proving  to  the  jury  that  the  accusation  is  true. 
The  discussion  of  this  question  led  to  an  investigation 
of  the  authorities  to  be  found  in  the  books  of  law  in 
reference  to  the  general  doctrine,  and  also  to  the 
nature  and  history  of  associations  of  ministers,  and 
their  relation  to  the  churches.  My  minutes  of  the 
points  and  authorities  are  pretty  full ;  but  they  would 
give  no  idea  of  the  style  and  manner  of  Mr.  Choate's 
argument. 

"  The  referees  were  of  opinion  that  associations  are 
privileged  to  inquire  into  the  conduct  of  their  mem- 
bers, and  in  good  faith  to  pass  votes  of  expulsion, 
stating  the  reasons  of  their  proceeding,  and  are  not 
responsible  to  legal  tribunals  for  the  accuracy  of  their 
conclusions.  They  were  satisfied  that  Dr.  Adams 
acted  in  good  faith,  and  made  an  award  in  his  favor, 
which,  after  argument,  was  sustained  by  the  Court. 
The  case  is  reported  in  11  Gushing,  549." 


260  MEMOIK  OF  KUFUS   CHOATE.        [CHAP.  VIII. 

In  May,  1851,  Mr.  Choate  argued  a  cause,  which, 
whether  estimated  by  the  interests  at  stake,  or  the 
signal  ability  of  the  counsel,  or  the  subtleness  of  the 
questions  at  issue,  would  undoubtedly  be  considered 
one  of  the  most  important  in  which  he  was  ever  en- 
gaged. It  was  that  generally  known  as  the  "Method- 
ist Church  Case."  It  was  heard  in  New  York,  before 
the  Circuit  Court  of  the  United  States,  Justices 
Nelson  and  Betts  presiding.  At  the  time  it  was, 
from  obvious  reasons,  of  the  deepest  interest  to  the 
whole  Methodist  world  of  the  United  States,  and  al- 
though it  concerned  property  alone,  yet  the  members 
and  presses  of  the  Church  at  the  North  always  main- 
tained most  urgently,  and  apparently  most  truthfully, 
that  the  pecuniary  gain  or  loss  was  quite  inconse- 
quential ;  that  the  real  question  was,  whether  the 
General  Conference  of  Churches  could  lawfully  act  so 
as  to  destroy  the  entirety  of  the % Church ;  that  if  it 
could  divide  the  Church  in  this  instance,  there  was 
no  limit  to  the  future  subdivisions  that  might  be 
made.  It  is  also  proper  to  state  that  the  Ch,urch  at 
the  North  was  anxious  to  harmonize  the  existing  dis- 
pute, and,  it  is  understood,  made,  as  they  thought,  a 
very  liberal  offer  of  compromise,  which  was  rejected 
by  the  Southern  Church. 

This  dispute  originated  in  that  prolific  source  of 
ill,  —  slavery.  Various  questions,  growing  out  of  the 
connection  of  the  Southern  Churchmen  with  Slavery, 
had,  at  various  times,  arisen  in  the  Church,  leading  to 
a  growing  alienation  of  the  two  sections.  Finally,  at 
a  General  Conference  of  the  then  united  Church,  held 
at  New  York  in  June,  1844,  a  "  plan  of  separation  " 
was  drawn  up,  looking  to  a  final  division  of  the 


1850-1855.]  METHODIST    CHURCH   CASE.  261 

Church,  which,  among  other  matters,  provided  that 
each  section  of  the  country  should  have  its  own 
Church,  independent  of  the  other ;  that  ministers  of 
every  grade  might  attach  themselves  without  blame 
to  either  Church,  as  they  preferred  ;  that  a  change  of 
the  first  clause  of  the  sixth  restrictive  article  should 
be  recommended  so  as  to  read :  "  They  shall  not  ap- 
propriate the  produce  of  the  '  Book  Concern '  other  than 
for  the  benefit  of  travelling,  supernumerary,  superan- 
nuated, and  worn-out  preachers,  their  wives,  widows, 
and  children,  and  such  other  purposes  as  a  General 
Conference  may  determine  ; "  that  on  the  adoption 
of  this  recommendation  by  the  Annual  Conferences, 
the  Northern  Agents  should  deliver  to  the  Southern 
Agents  so  much  of  certain  property  belonging  to  the 
Church  as  the  number  of  travelling  preachers  in  the 
Southern  bore  to  the  number  of  the  same  class  in 
the  Northern  Church  ;  that  all  'the  property  of  the 
Church  within  the  limits  of  the  Southern  organization 
should  be  for  ever  free  from  any  claim  of  the  Church, 
and  that  the  Churches,  North  and  South,  should  have 
a  right  in  common  to  use  all  copyrights  of  the  New 
York  and  Cincinnati  "Book  Concerns"  at  the  time 
of  settlement. 

Included  in  this  was  the  large  property  called  the 
"  Book  Concern,"  the  proceeds  of  which  were  to  be 
appropriated  as  the  change  in  the  first  clause  of  the 
sixth  article  above  stated  shows,  and  which  was  origi- 
nally instituted  by  that  class  which  is  now  its  bene- 
ficiaries. This  "  Book  Concern  "  was  vested  in  agents, 
and  against  them  this  action  was  brought  by  the 
Southern  agents  to  compel  a  delivery  of  their  share 
of  the  property. 


262  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS   CHOATE.         [CHAP.  VIIL 

The  plaintiffs  maintained  that  the  resolutions  of  the 
General  Conference  were  of  binding  force,  and  that 
the  General  Conference  of  the  Southern  Church  had 
acted  upon  them  in  good  faith,  and  passed  resolutions 
declaring  the  expediency  of  separation ;  and  that, 
after  this  action  of  the  Southern  Conference,  a  coun- 
cil of  Northern  Bishops  met  at  New  York,  and  passed 
resolutions  ratifying  the  "  plan  "  of  the  General  Con- 
ference of  18.44,  regarding  it  as  of  binding  obligation. 

In  reply  to  this,  the  defendants,  admitting  many  of 
the  plaintiffs'  allegations,  rested  their  defence  mainly 
on  the  following  propositions  :  — 

1.  That  the  resolutions  of  the  General  Conference 
of  1844,  when  properly  understood,  do  not  impart  an 
unqualified  assent  of  that  body  to  a  division  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church  into  two  separate  and 
distinct  organizations  or  churches ;  that   the  assent 
thereby  given  was  conditional  and  contingent,  and 
that  the  conditions  were  not  complied  with,  nor  has 
the  contingency  happened. 

2.  That,  if  otherwise,  the  General  Conference  was 
not  possessed  of  competent  power  and  authority  to 
assent  to,  or  authorize  the  division.     And, 

3.  That  the  division,  therefore,  which  took  place 
was  a  nullity,  and  the  separate  organization  a  wrong- 
ful withdrawal  and  disconnection  from  the  member- 
ship, communion,  and  government  of  the  Church,  by 
reason  of  which  the  travelling,  supernumerary,  and 
worn-out  preachers  composing  the  separate  organiza- 
tion, are  taken  out  of  the  description  of  the  benefici- 
aries of  the  fund. 

The  decision  of  Justice  Nelson  was  adverse  to  the 
Northern  party;  and  this  view  was  subsequently 
maintained  by  the  Supreme  Court  in  Washington. 


1850-1855.]  ADDRESS    AT   CAMBRIDGE.  263 

In  July  of  this  year  (1851),  Mr.  Choate  again 
addressed  the  Law  School  at  Cambridge,  or  rather 
"  The  Story  Association,"  composed  of  the  past  and 
present  members  of  the  School.  And  here,  moved 
by  the  dangerous  heresies  which  seemed  to  him  too 
familiarly  received  in  the  community,  the  orator  urged 
upon  the  profession  the  new  duty,  as  he  called  it,  of 
checking  the  spirit  of  disloyalty,  by  correcting  the 
public  judgment, — by  enlightening  and  directing 
the  public  sense  of  right.  "  This  then,"  he  said,  "  is 
the  new  duty,  the  opus  aureum,  to  cherish  the  Religion 
of  the  Law,  —  to  win  back  the  virtues  to  the  service  of 
the  State,  and,  with  Cicero  and  Grotius,  to  make 
loyalty  to  Law  the  fundamental  principle  in  each 
good  man's  breast.  The  capital  defect  of  the  day  is, 
not  that  conscience  is  too  much  worshipped,  but  that 
it  is  not  properly  limited.  Its  true  sphere  is  not 
properly  seen  and  circumscribed.  Men  think  that  by 
the  mere  feeling  within  them  of  a  sense  of  right,  they 
can  test  great  subjects  to  which  the  philosophy  of 
ages  leads  the  way,  and  can  try  a  grand  complex 
polity,  embracing  a  multitude  of  interests  and  con- 
flicting claims  and  duties.  But  these  ethical  politics 
do  not  train  the  citizen  ab  extra  to  be  enlightened  on 
these  subjects. 

"  Morality  should  go  to  school.  It  should  consult 
the  builders  of  Empire,  and  learn  the  arts  imperial  by 
which  it  is  preserved,  ere  it  ventures  to  pronounce  on 
the  construction  and  laws  of  nations  and  common- 
wealths. For,  unless  the  generation  of  Washington 
was  in  a  conspiracy  against  their  posterity,  and  the 
generation  of  this  day,  in  high  and  judicial  station,  is 
in  the  same  plot,  the  large  toleration  which  inspires 
the  Constitution  and  the  Laws  was  not  only  wise, 


264  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS  CHOATE.          [CHAP.  VIE. 

but  was  indispensable  to  forming  or  keeping  any 
union,  and  to  the  prosperity  of  us  all. 

"  Let  the  babblers  against  the  laws  contemplate 
Socrates  in  his  cell  about  to  quaff  the  poison  which 
Athens  presented  to  him.  He  is  pleading  with  his 
disciples  for  the  sanctity  of  the  very  law  which  con- 
demns him  :  he  refuses  to  escape  ;  and,  '  after  a  brief 
discourse  on  the  immortality  of  the  soul,'  he  dies.  Let 
them  learn,  that  ere  laws  and  constitutions  can  be 
talked  about,  they  must  at  least  be  the  subject  of  a 
special  study.  Their  transcendental  philosophy  must 
condescend  to  study,  not  only  the  character,  but  even 
the  temper,  of  a  people,  and  this  not  a  priori,  but  as 
it  appears  in  the  local  press  and  public  demonstrations. 
Then  they  would  observe  that  there  are  three  great 
things  adverse  to  the  permanence  -of  our  National 
Government,  —  its  recency,  its  artificial  structure,  and 
the  peculiar  facilities  which  the  State  organizations 
afford  for  separation  :  and  from  this  study  they  would 
learn  how  little  they  know  what  a  work  it  was  to 
found  and  keep  the  Republic  and  its  laws.  '  Tantce 
molis  erat  Romanam  condere  gentem."1 

"  To  exercise  this  conservative  influence,  to  beget 
a  distrust  of  individual  and  unenlightened  judgment, 
on  matters  of  such  vast  import  and  extent,  and  to 
foster  a  religious  reverence  for  the  laws,  is  the  new 
duty  which  the  times  demand  of  the  legal  profession." 

On  the  death  of  Hon.  Levi  Woodbury,  one  of  the 
Judges  of.  the  United  States  Supreme  Court,  in  Sep- 
tember, 1851,  it  is  understood  that  the  place  was  offered 
to  Mr.  Choate,  but  he  felt  obliged  to  decline  the  honor.1 

1  Hon.  Peter  Harvey,  in  his  "  Reminiscences  of  Daniel  Webster," 
says, "  After  the  death  of  Judge  Woodbury  and  the  consequent  vacancy 
in  the  United  States  Supreme  Court,  Mr.  Webster  [then  Secretary 


1850-1855.]  LETTER  TO  HIS   SON.  265 


[LETTER  TO  HIS  SON,  RCFUS,  THEN  IN  AMHERST  COLLEGE.] 

"  BOSTON,  11  October,  Saturday  evening. 

"My  DEAR  SON, —  I  get  so  little  time,  now  that  J.  is 
gone,  and  all  the  courts  are  sitting,  to  do  what  I  should  love 
most  to  do,  that  I  have  been  obliged  to  neglect  writing  at  the 
very  moment  when  letters  from  home  might  be  the  most 
pleasant  and  useful  to  you.  To-day  I  gain  a  little  respite, 
and  feel  as  if  I  must  send  you  my  love,  if  no  more.  Your 
letters  to  your  mother  and  sisters  seem  to  show  you  happy 
and  contented,  yet  loving  to  think  and  hear  of  home.  So  I 
hope  it  will  be  through  your  whole  college  life.  If  now  we 
can  continue  to  hear  that  you  escape  all  the  sickness  of  col- 
lege —  remain  the  same  true  and  good  boy  as  ever  —  with  a 
little  more  development  of  the  love  of  study  —  good  books  — 
noble  examples  —  and  true  excellence  —  our  happiness  for 
the  present  would  be  complete.  You  have  been  so  excellently 
fitted,  that  I  know  you  can  stand  high  in  the  class,  and  I 
entreat  you  to  resolve  —  not  by  foul  means  but  by  fair  —  to 
win  such  prizes  as  those  with  which  E.  gladdens  his  father's 
and  sisters'  hearts.  All  that  I  can  ever  do  for  you  is  —  if 
I  live  (all  depends  on  that)  —  to  afford  you  the  means  of 
laying  a  foundation  for  eminence  and  usefulness  —  by  scholar- 
ship. If  you  neglect  these,  all  is  lost.  But  I  am  sure  you 
will  not.  I  hope  that  you  will  from  the  start  cultivate 
elocution.  The  power  of  speaking  with  grace  and  energy  — 
the  power  of  using  aright  the  best  words  of  our  noble  lan- 
guage—  is  itself  a  fortune  —  and  a  reputation  —  if  it  is 
associated  and  enriched  by  knowledge  and  sense.  I  would ' 
therefore  give  a  special  attention  to  all  that  is  required  of 
you  in  this  department.  But  not  one  study  prescribed  by 
the  government  is  to  be  neglected.  It  is  a  large  and  liberal 
course,  and  fits  well  for  the  introduction  to  a  really  solid  and 
elegant  education.  Cultivate  the  best  scholars  and  minds  ; 
and  while  you  treat  all  men  well,  do  not  squander  time  on 
shallow,  frivolous,  and  idle  boys. 

"  I  believe  my  library  has  received  its  last  finish  since  you 
were  here.  Next  to  my  whole  family,  here  and  elsewhere, 
I  love  it  best  of  all  things  of  earth,  and  wish  I  could  gain 

of  State],  said,  '  Mr.  Choate  will  have  the  offer  of  this,  but  I  do  not 
know  as  he  will  take  it.  The  offer  is  due  to  him  as  the  first  lawyer 
in  New  England.  I  shall  make  him  the  offer.' "  The  place  was 
afterwards  given  to  Hon.  Benjamin  R.  Curtis. 


266  MEMOIR   OF  KUFUS   CHOATE.        [CHAP.  YIII. 

more  time  from   plaintiffs   and   defendants   to    give   to   its 
solaces,  utilities,  and  amenities. 

"  We  begin  to  count  the  weeks  to  your  jirst  return  !  Be 
most  prudent  to  avoid  the  sicknesses  you  speak  of  —  and 
all  things  else  that  shall  prevent  your  bringing  back  the 
bloom  of  body  and  heart  which  you  carried  away.  Your 
mother  is  not  very  well,  but  sends  love  and  cautions,  as  do 
the  sisters  three.  Give  our  united  love  to  E.  and  tell  him 
we  look  to  him  for  our  son. 

"YouR  AFFEC.  FATHER." 


[LETTER  TO  HIS  SON  RUFUS.] 

"  BOSTON,  6th  March,  1852. 

"  MY  DEAREST  RUFUS,  —  I  have  been  quite  unwell  for  a 
fortnight  —  unusually  so  for  me  —  and  I  am  not  sure  that  I 
am  yet  wholly  restored.  In  the  intervals  of  sharp  neuralgic 
pains,  I  have  been  either  exhausted,  or  very  busy  ;  and 
therefore,  although  my  thoughts  and  heart  have  been  very 
much  turned  towards  you,  I  have  not  been  able  to  write. 
The  girls  and  your  mother  have  given  you  my  love  —  but 
neither  they  nor  I  can  convey  any  idea  of  how  much  I  love 
you ;  how  anxious  I  feel  for  your  true  and  best  good ;  and 
how  inexpressibly  happy  I  shall  be  to  know  that  you  love 
learning ;  love  honor,  character,  and  virtue ;  and  have  ener- 
getically and  hopefully  set  out  on  the  career  of  usefulness 
and  respectability.  Sometimes  I  regret  that  I  did  not  incur 
the  expense  and  run  the  hazards  of  Cambridge,  that  we  might 
see  your  pleasant  face,  and  give  you  a  helping  hand,  and  a 
pleasant  family  welcome  once  a  week.  But  my  means  are 
really  so  small  —  depending  wholly  on  my  health  —  from 
day  to  day,  and  the  temptations,  and  general  influences  of 
this  great  school  so  severe  —  and  Amherst  promises  so  much 
help  to  studious  habits,  and  moral  dispositions,  that  we  have 
plucked  you  as  from  our  arms,  to  send  you  to  a  safer  and 
more  beautiful  spot.  I  hope,  my  most  dear  child,  all  our 
wishes  will  be  gratified  in  the  result. 

"  The  thing  I  most  of  all,  or  as  much  as  any  thing,  regret, 
is  that  I  cannot,  from  day  to  day,  go  over  with  you  the 
studies  of  the  day.  My  college  life  was  so  exquisitely  happy, 
that  I  should  love  to  relive  it  in  my  son.  The  studies  of 
Latin  and  Greek,  Livy,  Horace,  Tacitus  —  Xenophon, 
Herodotus,  and  Thucydides  especially,  —  had  ever  a  charm 


1850-1855.]  LETTER   TO   HIS   SON.  267 

beyond  expression ;  and  the  first  opening  of  our  great 
English  authors,  Milton,  Addison,  Johnson,  and  the  great 
writers  for  the  Reviews,  made  that  time  of  my  life  a  brief, 
sweet,  dream.  They  created  tastes,  and  supplied  sources  of 
enjoyment,  which  support  me  to  this  hour  —  in  fatigue,  ill- 
health,  and  low  spirits  —  and  I  must  say  I  could  not  then, 
and  cannot  now,  look  with  a  particle  of  respect  or  interest  on 
any  classmate  who  did  not  relish  these  delicious  and  ennobling 
sources  of  scholarlike  enjoyment  and  accomplishment,  and 
resolve  to  be  distinguished  by  his  command  of  them. 

"  You  are  so  infinitely  better  fitted  for  college  than  I  was 
—  or  than  almost  any  in  your  class  can  be  —  that  I  am  sure 
you  can  lead  if  you  will  resolve  to  do  so.  Be  just  and  gen- 
erous to  all.  Use  no  arts  to  supplant  others  with  the 
government,  but  by  study,  —  persistent  and  habitual  —  give 
me  the  supreme  gratification  of  hearing  that  you  stand  in 
good  conduct  as  you  did  at  the  Latin  school  —  and  in  scholar- 
ship among  the  foremost.  Oh,  think  what  delight  you  will 
give  us  all  to  know  that  the  days  of  exhibition  in  your  class 
are  days  your  mother,  sisters,  and  I,  can  attend  with  pride 
and  hope ! 

"  I  have  conceived  so  much  anxiety  about  my  health  — 
for  reasons  which  I  hardly  communicate  to  the  family  — 
that  I  seem  to  feel  that  at  any  moment  you  might  be  left  the 
only  support  of  those  you  love  so  dearly.  Such  an  event 
would  leave  you  all  poor.  Continue  to  be  then,  my  dear  son, 
frugal,  temperate,  and  thoughtful.  If  I  live,  I  hope  you 
will  read  the  law  with  me,  and  rise  to  its  honors,  but  your 
immediate  sphere  of  duty  is  college  life,  and  through  that  I 
am  sure  you  mean  to  pass  with  distinction  and  safety. 

"  I  have  sometimes  given  you  presents.  I  would  '  coin 
my  heart  for  drachmas '  rather  than  that  you  should  want  the 
means  of  a  thorough  education  ;  and  /  now  promise  you,  if 
you  will  bring  me  satisfactory  evidence  at  the  end  of  the 
term,  of  good  conduct,  and  high,  good  scholarship,  /  will 
(five  you  the  most  valuable  gift  which  you  have  ever  yet  had, 
or  had  promised:  I  shall  not  tell  you  what. 

"  Give  my  love  to  Edward.  Pray  avoid  all  idle  and  all 
vicious  companions,  and  cultivate  the  ambitious,  studious,  and 
rising  —  rising  by  merit. 

"  I  want  you  to  write  me  a  full  letter,  telling  me  your 
daily  life  anil  studies,  what  you  like  best,  and  why. 

"  Bless  you,  dear  son.  Your  father, 

"R.  CHOATE." 


268  MEMOIR  OF  KUFUS  CHOATE.        [CHAP.  VHL 

During  the  years  1851  and  1852,  notwithstand- 
ing the  increasing  demands  of  his  profession,  Mr. 
Choate  continued  deeply  interested  in  national  poli- 
tics. There  were  many  at  the  North  dissatisfied  with 
the  compromise  measures  of  1850,  and  alienated  from 
Mr.  Webster,  on  account  of  his  speech  on  the  7th  of 
March.  There  were  others  who  believed  those  meas- 
ures to  be  in  general  wise  and  conciliatory,  and  that 
Mr.  Webster  never  assumed  a  position  more  dignified 
and  patriotic,  or  showed  a  more  profound  sense  of  the 
demands  of  the  whole  country.  The  Massachusetts 
Whigs  of  this  class  determined  to  call  a  public  meet- 
ing, in  order  to  present  to  the  country  the  name  of 
that  great  statesman  as  a  candidate  for  the  Presi- 
dency. The  convention  was  held  on  the  25th  of 
November,  1 851,  and  proved  to  be  one  of  the  largest, 
most  respectable,  and  most  enthusiastic  gatherings  of 
the  year.  It  was  presided  over  by  Hon.  George 
Ashmun ;  and  the  principal  address  was  made  by 
Mr.  Choate.  Of  all  the  tributes  to  Mr.  Webster, 
never  was  one  more  hearty,  more  sincere,  or  more 
stirring  than  that  which  he  then  delivered.  His 
whole  soul  was  alive  with  his  theme.  A  sense  of  the 
injustice  which  that  great  statesman  had  suffered  ;  of 
the  angry  and  slanderous  attacks  made  upon  him  by 
the  little  and  malignant;  of  the  insult  which  one 
of  the  boards  of  the  city  government  had  contrived  to 
inflict  by  refusing  to  him  —  the  first  citizen  of  the 
State  —  permission  to  speak  in  Faneuil  Hall ;  the  in- 
gratitude with  which  many  at  the  North  had  requited 
his  long  and  arduous  and  grand  services,  —  all  inspired 
the  orator  to  a  strain  of  fervid  declamation,  which 
swept  the  vast  assembly  with  him  as  if  but  one  spirit 
moved  them  all. 


1850-1855.]     BALTIMORE  CONVENTION,  JUNE,  1852.        269 

The  early  part  of  the  year  1852  was  marked  by 
nothing  of  peculiar  interest.  In  March  he  made  a 
powerful  argument  in  an  India-rubber  case,  in  Tren- 
ton, N.  J.  Mr.  Webster  was  on  the  opposite  side  — 
one  of  his  latest  appearances  in  a  case  of  great  impor- 
tance. Mr.  Choate  was  said  to  have  surpassed  himself 
in  learning,  strength,  and  brilliancy ;  but  of  the  argu- 
ment, as  of  the  great  majority  of  speeches  at  the  bar, 
absolutely  nothing  remains  —  ipsce  periere  rumce. 

The  Whig  Convention  for  the  nomination  of  a  can- 
didate for  the  Presidency  —  the  last  National  Conven- 
tion of  the  party  —  met  in  Baltimore  on  Wednesday 
the  16th  of  June,  1852.  The  secret  history  of  it  is  yet 
to  be  written. 

The  place  of  meeting  was  a  spacious  hall.  The 
members  occupied  a  raised  platform  in  the  centre  ; 
spectators,  from  all  parts  of  the  country,  sat  upon 
benches  at  the  sides,  while  the  gallery  was  filled  with 
ladies.  Two  days  were  spent  in  effecting  an  organiza- 
tion, and  preparing  a  series  of  resolutions.  It  was  con- 
sidered doubtful  whether  a  platform  could  be  agreed 
upon,  binding  the  party  to  the  '  compromise  meas- 
ures," as  they  were  called.  As  these  measures  were 
not  entirely  acquiesced  in  by  many  of  the  Northern 
members,  it  was  supposed  to^be  the  policy  of  some  to 
make  the  nomination  without  a  declaration  of  political 
sentiments  on  the  question  of  slavery,  and  then  to  re- 
solve that  no  such  declaration  was  necessary.  If  this 
were  the  plan,  it  did  not  succeed.  It  was  understood 
that  General  Scott  had  written  to  some  member  of 
the  Convention  assenting  to  these  "  measures,"  though 
for  some  reason  the  letter  had  not  been  produced. 
The  resolutions  were  at  length  read,  and  all  eyes 


270  MEMOIR   OF  RUFUS   CHOATE.        [CHAP.  VIII. 

turned  toward  the  seats  occupied  by  the  Massachu- 
setts delegates.  Mr.  Choate  presently  rose ;  it  was 
about  half-past  five  o'clock  on  the  afternoon  of  Friday. 
The  thousand  fans  ceased  to  flutter,  and  the  hall  was 
silent  with  expectation.  He  began  in  a  quiet  manner, 
as  he  usually  did,  with  an  allusion  to  the  general 
sentiment  of  the  platform  itself,  and  then  broke  into 
a  more  fervent  strain  of  thanksgiving  to  God,  that  a 
sentiment  urged  before,  man}'  times  and  in  many 
places,  seemed  now  likely,  by  so  near  an  approach  to 
unanimity,  to  be  adopted  and  promulgated  by  that 
authority,  among  the  highest  which  he  recognized, 
the  National  Whig  Party  of  the  United  States,  in 
General  Convention  assembled. 

"  Sir,"  said  he,  "  why  should  not  this  organ  of  one 
of  the  great  national  parties,  which,  pervading  the 
country,  while  they  divide  the  people,  confirm  the 
Union,  —  for  I  hold  that  these  party  organizations, 
wisely  and  morally  administered,  are  among  the  most 
powerful  instrumentalities  of  union,  —  here,  now,  and 
thus  declare,  that,  in  its  judgment,  the  further  agita- 
tion of  the  subject  of  slavery  be  excluded  from,  and 
forbidden  in,  the  national  politics?  Why  should  it 
not  declare  that  if  agitation  must  continue,  it  shall  be 
remitted  to  the  forum  of  philanthropy,  of  literature, 
of  the  press,  of  sectional  organization,  of  fanaticism, 
organized  or  unorganized ;  but  that  the  Federal  Gov- 
ernment has  in  this  field  closed  its  labors  and  retires, 
leaving  it  to  the  firmness  of  a  permanent  Judiciary  to 
execute  what  the  Legislature  has  ordained  ? 

"  Why  should  we  not  engage  ourselves  to  the 
finality  of  the  entire  series  of  measures  of  compro- 
Does  any  member  of  this  body  believe  that  the 


1850-1855.]  SPEECH   IN  BALTIMORE.  271 

interests  of  the  nation,  the  interests  of  humanity,  our 
highest  interests,  our  loftiest  duties,  require  an  attempt 
to  disturb  them  ?  Was  it  needful  to  pass  them  ?  Did 
not  a  moral  necessity  compel  it  ?  Who  now  doubts 
this  ?  I  do  not  deny  that  some  good  men  have  done  so, 
and  now  do.  I  am  quite  well  aware  that  fanaticism 
has  doubted  it,  or  has  affected  to  doubt  it,  to  the  end 
that  it  may  leave  itself  free,  unchecked  by  its  own 
conscience,  to  asperse  the  motives  of  the  authors  and 
advocates  of  this  scheme  of  peace  and  reconciliation, 

—  to  call  in  question  the  soundness  of  the  ethics  on 
which  it  rests,  and  to  agitate  for  ever  for  its  repeal. 
But  the  American  people  know,  by  every  kind  and 
degree  of  evidence  by  which  such  a  truth  ever  can  be 
known,  that   these   measures,  in  the  crisis  of  their 
time,  saved  this  nation.     I  thank  God  for  the  civil 
courage,  which,  at  the  hazard  of  all  things  dearest  in 
life,  dared  to  pass  and  defend  them,  and  '  has  taken 
no  step  backward.'     I  rejoice  that  the  healthy  moral- 
ity of  the  country,  with  an  instructed  conscience,  void 
of  offence  toward  God  and  man,  has  accepted  them. 
Extremists  denounce  all   compromises,  ever.     Alas ! 
do  they  remember  that  such  is  the  condition  of  hu- 
manity that  the  noblest  politics  are  but  a  compromise 

—  an  approximation  —  a   type  —  a   shadow  of  good 
things  —  the  buying  of  great  blessings  at  great  prices? 
Do  they  forget  that  the  Union  is  a  compromise  ;  the 
Constitution  —  social  life,  —  that  the  harmony  of  the 
universe  is  but  the  music  of  compromise,  by  which 
the  antagonisms  of  the  infinite  Nature  are  composed 
and  reconciled  ?     Let  him  who  doubts  —  if  such  there 
be  —  whether  it  were  wise  to  pass  these   measures, 
look  back   and  recall  with  what  instantaneous  and 


272  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS  CHOATE.        [CHAP.  VIII. 

mighty  charm  they  calmed  the  madness  and  anxiety 
of  the  hour !  How  every  countenance,  everywhere, 
brightened  and  elevated  itself !  How,  in  a  moment, 
the  interrupted  and  parted  currents  of  fraternal  feel- 
ing reunited  !  Sir,  the  people  came  together  again,  as 
when,  in  the  old  Roman  history,  the  tribes  descended 
from  the  mount  of  secession,  — the  great  compromise 
of  that  constitution  achieved,  —  and  flowed  together 
behind  the  eagle  into  one  mighty  host  of  reconciled 
races  for  the  conquest  of  the  world. 

"  Well,  if  it  were  necessary  to  adopt  these  measures, 
is  it  not  necessary  to  continue  them  ?  In  their  nature 
and  office,  are  they  not  to  be  as  permanent  as  the 
antagonisms  to  which  they  apply  ?  Would  any  man 
here  repeal  them  if  he  could  command  the  numerical 
power?  Does  he  see  any  thing  but  unmixed  and 
boundless  evil  in  the  attempt  to  repeal  them?  Why 
not,  then,  declare  the  doctrine  of  their  permanence? 
In  the  language  of  Daniel  Webster, '  Why  delay  the 
declaration  ?  Sink  or  swim,  live  or  die,  survive  or 
perish,  I  am  for  it.' 

"  Sir,  let  me  suggest  a  reason  or  two  for  this  for- 
mality of  announcement  of  such  a  declaration  in  such 
a  platform.  In  the  first  place,  our  predecessors  of 
the  Democratic  Convention,  in  this  hall,  have  made 
it  indispensable.  If  we  do  not  make  it  as  comprehen- 
sive and  as  unequivocally  as  they  have,  we  shall  be 
absorbed,  scattered  !  —  absorbed  by  the  whirlpool,  — 
scattered  by  the  whirlwind  of  the  sentiment  of  nation- 
ality which  they  have  had  the  sagacity  to  discern  and 
hide  under.  Look  at  their  platform,  and  see  what  a 
multitude  of  sins  of  omission  and  commission,  bad 
policy  and  no  policy,  the  mantle  of  national  feeling  is 


1850-1855.1  SPEECH   IN  BALTIMORE.  273 

made  not  ungracefully  to  cover.  And  remember  that 
you  may  provide  a  banquet  as  ample  as  you  will ; 
you  may  load  the  board  with  whatever  of  delicacy  or 
necessity;  you  may  declare  yourselves  the  promoters 
of  commerce,  wheresoever,  on  salt  water  or  fresh 
water,  she  demands  your  care  ;  the  promoters  of  in- 
ternal improvements,  —  of  the  protection  of  labor, 
promising  to  the  farmer  of  America  the  market  of 
America,  —  of  peace  with  all  nations,  entangling  alli- 
ances with  none,  —  of  progress  not  by  external  aggres- 
sion, but  by  internal  development ;  spread  your  board 
as  temptingly  as  you  will,  if  the  national  appetite 
does  not  find  there  the  bread  and  water  of  national 
life,  the  aliment  of  nationality,  it  will  turn  from  your 
provisions  in  disgust. 

"  Again  :  some  persons  object  to  all  such  attempt 
to  give  sacredness  and  permanence  to  any  policy  of 
government,  or  any  settlement  of  any  thing  by  the 
people.  They  object  to  them  as  useless,  as  unphilo- 
sophical,  as  mischievous.  The  compromise  measures 
are  nothing,  they  say,  but  a  law ;  and,  although  we 
think  them  a  very  good  law,  yet  better  turn  them  over 
to  the  next  elections,  the  next  Presidential  canvass, 
the  next  session  of  Congress,  to  take  their  chance. 
If  they  are  of  God,  of  nature,  of  humanity,  they  will 
stand  anyhow  ;  and  if  not,  they  ought  not  to  stand. 

"  I  am  not  quite  of  this  opinion.  I  know,  indeed, 
how  vain  it  is  to  seek  to  bind  a  future  generation,  or 
even  a  future  day.  I  see  the  great  stream  of  progress 
passing  by,  on  which  all  things  of  earth  are  moving. 
I  listen,  awe-struck,  to  the  voice  of  its  rushing.  Let 
all  who  have  eyes  to  see  and  ears  to  hear,  see  and 
hear  also.  Still  I  believe  something  may  be  done  at 

18 


274  MEMOIR   OF  RUFUS   CHOATE.        [CHAP.  VIIL 

favorable  junctures  to  shape,  color,  confirm  even,  so 
capricious  and  so  mighty  a  thing  as  public  opinion. 
This  is  the  theory  on  which  written  constitutions  are 
constructed.  Why  such  toil  on  these,  unless  in  the 
belief  that  you  may  and  should  seek  to  embody  and 
fix  an  important  agreement  of  the  national  mind,  — 
may  for  a  little  space  moor  the  ship  against  the  stream, 
and  insure  that  when  she  is  swept  from  that  mooring, 
she  may  not  be  instantly  shattered,  but  float  with  some 
safety,  and  under  some  control,  to  the  ocean? 

"  I  believe,  and  have  many  times  asserted  and  en- 
forced the  idea,  that  if  the  two  great  national  parties 
would  now,  in  this  most  solemn,  public,  authoritative 
manner,  unite  in  extracting  and  excluding  this  busi- 
ness of  the  agitation  of  slavery  from  their  political 
issues,  —  if  they  would  adjudge,  decree,  and  proclaim 
that  this  is  all  a  capital  on  which  a  patriotic  man,  or 
body  of  men,  may  not  trade ;  that  the  subject  is  out 
of  the  domain  of  politics,  disposed  of  by  the  higher 
law  of  a  common  national  consent,  founded  on  a  re- 
gard for  the  common  good,  —  and  that  if  they  would 
go  into  the  coming  and  all  contests  upon  their  proper 
and  strict  political  issues,  each  contending  with  the 
other  only  for  the  glory  of  a  greater  participation  in 
the  compromise,  much  would  be  done  to  perpetuate  the 
national  peace  within,  which  we  now  enjoy.  What- 
ever the  result  of  the  canvass,  and  however  severely 
it  might  be  conducted,  it  would  be  one  great  jubilee 
of  Union,  in  which  the  discordant  voice  of  sections 
and  fanaticism  would  be  silenced  or  unheard. 

"Let  me  trouble  you  with  one  more  reason  for 
adopting  this  compromise.  Sir,  let  us  put  it  out  of  our 
power  to  be  tempted,  in  the  excitement  of  this  election, 


1850-1855.]     BALTIMORE  CONVENTION,  JUNE,  1852.        275 

to  press  the  claims  of  our  candidate  in  one  part  of  the 
country  on  the  ground  that  his  success  will  extinguish 
agitation,  and  to  press  the  claims  of  the  same  candi- 
date in  another  part  of  it  on  the  ground  that  his  suc- 
cess will  promote  agitation.  As  gentlemen  and  men 
of  honor  and  honest  men,  let  us  take  the  utmost 
security  against  this.  Who  does  not  hang  down  his 
head  in  advance  with  shame,  at  the  fraud  and  falsehood 
exemplified  in  going  into  one  locality  and  crying  out 
of  the  Northern  side  of  our  mouths,  '  No  platform  !  — 
agitation  for  ever !  —  ours  is  the  candidate  of  progress 
and  freedom  ! '  And  then  going  into  another  and 
shouting  through  the  Southern  side,  'All  right!  — 
we  are  the  party  of  compromise  !  —  we  have  got  no 
platform,  to  be  sure,  but  Mr.  So-and-so  has  got  a  first- 
rate  letter  in  his  breeches-pocket,  and  Mr.  So-and-so 
is  vehemently  believed  to  have  one  in  his,  —  either  of 
them  as  good  as  half  a  dozen  platforms.'  Pray,  if  you 
love  us,  put  us  into  no  such  position  as  this.  Lead  us 
not  into  such  temptation,  and  deliver  us  from  such 
evil.  How  much  better  to  send  up  the  Union  flag 
at  once  to  each  masthead,  blazing  with  '  Liberty  and 
Union,  now  and  for  ever,  one  and  inseparable,'  and 
go  down  even  so  ! " 

The  effect  of  this  speech  upon  the  audience,  who 
frequently  interrupted  him  with  enthusiastic  applause, 
was  indescribable.  After  the  cheering  hacj.  somewhat 
Subsided,  remarks  were  made  by  several  members  of 
the  Convention,  and  a  running  conversation  for  some 
time  kept  up  concerning  the  letter  of  General  Scott, 
till  finally  one  was  produced  and  read.  Mr.  Botts, 
of  Virginia,  in  the  course  of  his  remarks  criticised  Mr. 
Choate  for  an  implied  imputation  upon  General  Scott, 


276  MEMOIR   OF  RUFUS  CHOATE.       [CHAP.  VIII. 

and  an  implied  commendation  of  Mr.  Webster.  He 
closed  by  asking  whether  he  should  move  the  adoption 
of  the  resolutions  and  call  for  the  previous  question, 
saying,  however,  that  he  would  not  do  so,  even  at  the 
request  of  the  entire  Convention,  if  the  gentleman 
from  Massachusetts  felt  aggrieved  at  his  remarks 
and  desired  to  respond.  There  were  loud  cries  for 
"  Choate."  "  First,"  says  one  who  was  present,  "  by 
his  friends  of  the  Convention,  then  by  his  partisans 
on  the  floor,  and  then  by  the  gay  galleries.  The 
chorus  was  immense,  imperative,  and  determined." 
After  some  hesitancy  he  at  last  rose,  and  in  a  tone  of 
imperial  grace  said,  "  I  shall  endeavor  to  keep  within 
the  rule  laid  down  by  the  chairman.  I  beg  to  assure 
gentlemen  that  nothing  in  the  world  was  further  from 
my  intention  than  to  enter  upon  any  eulogy  of  tliat 
great  man,  my  friend  of  so  many  years,  whose  name 
is  as  imperishably  connected  with  a  long  series  of  all 
the  civil  glories  of  his  country  as  it  is  with  this  last 
and  greatest  of  his  achievements.  I  assure  you,  Sir, 
upon  my  honor,  and  I  assure  the  gentleman  from 
Virginia  on  my  honor  also,  that  I  rose  solely  and 
simply  to  express,  in  the  briefest  possible  terms,  the 
convictions  of  myself  and  of  many  gentlemen  here 
on  the  merits  of  the  general  subject  itself  without 
appreciating  what  possible  influence  the  remarks  I 
might  submit  would  exert  on  the  chances  of  this, 
that,  or  the  other  eminent  person  for  receiving  the 
nomination  of  the  Convention." 

Being  interrupted  here  by  a  question  from  Mr. 
Botts,  "  Whether  he  understood  the  gentleman  rightly 
as  saying  that  he  did  not  mean  to  depreciate  any 
other  candidate,  when  speaking  of  that  one  who  was 


1850-1855.]  SPEECH  IN   BALTIMORE.  277 

his  first  choice,"  he  proceeded,  "  I  meant  to  present 
a  sound  argument  to  the  Convention,  to  the  end  that 
this  Convention  might  stand  committed  as  men  of 
honor  everywhere.  I  say,  here  and  everywhere,  give 
us  that  man,  and  you  will  promote  peace  and  suppress 
agitation ;  and  if  you  give  us  any  other,  you  have 
no  assurance  at  all  that  that  agitation  will  be  sup- 
pressed. , 

"  I  am  suspected  of  having  risen  to  pay  a  personal 
compliment  to  that  great  name  with  which  I  confess 
my  heart  is  full  to  bursting,  because  I  stand  here, 
according  to  my  measure,  to  praise  and  defend  the 
great  system  of  policy  which  the  unanimous  judgment 
of  this  Convention  has  approved,  or  is  about  to  approve 
and  promulgate.  Ah,  Sir,  what  a  reputation  that  must 
be,  — what  a  patriotism  that  must  be,  —  what  a  long 
and  brilliant  series  of  public  services  that  must  be, 
when  you  cannot  mention  a  measure  of  utility  like 
this  but  every  eye  spontaneously  turns  to,  and  every 
voice  spontaneously  utters,  that  great  name  of 
DANIEL  WEBSTER! 

"  I  have  done,  Sir.  I  have  no  letter  to  present, 
written  last  week,  or  the  week  before  last.  Mr.  Web- 
ster's position  on  this  question  dates  where  the  peace 
of  the  country  had  its  final  consummation,  on  the  7th 
of  March,  1850. 

"  But,  Sir,  I  did  not  intend  to  electioneer  in  the 
slightest  degree.  If  my  friend  from  Virginia  will  re- 
call the  course  of  my  observations,  he  will  find  that  I 
confined  myself  exclusively  to  the  defence  of  the 
measure  itself.  But  so  it  is  that  there  is  some  such 
reputation  that  you  cannot  stand  up  and  ask  for  glory 
and  blessing,  and  honor  and  po.wer,  or  length  of  days 


278  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS   CHOATE.        [CHAP.  VIIL 

upon  America,  but  you  seem  to  be  electioneering  for 
that  great  reputation." 

The  scene  that  followed  was  one  of  intense  enthu- 
siasm. J3ouquets  were  thrown  at  the  feet  of  the 
orator,  and  every  demonstration  made  which  could 
indicate  homage  and  delight.  All  were  amazed  at 
the  ingenuity  of  the  speech  as  well  as  captivated  by 
its  eloquence.  The  platform  was  adopted  by  a  vote 
of  227  to  66. 

There  was  another  speech  made  by  Mr.  Choate  dur- 
ing the  sitting  of  the  Convention,  at  a  private  enter- 
tainment given  by  the  Massachusetts  members  to 
some  of  those  from  the  South-west,  which  is  said  to 
have  produced  the  greatest  delight  and  enthusiasm. 
The  gathering  was  arranged  with  the  hope  that  it 
might  lead  the  Southerners  to  cast  their  votes  for  Mr. 
Webster,  Mr.  Choate  had  not  been  consulted  ;  the 
heat  of  the  weather  was  intense,  and  he  had  gone  to 
bed  with  a  sick-headache.  One  of  his  friends  went  to 
him  and  asked  him  to  be  present.  "  It  is  impossible," 
he  replied,  "  I  am  too  ill  to  hold  up  my  head.  I  have 
not  strength  to  say  a  word."  He  was  told  that  he 
need  say  but  little,  and  that  it  was  for  Mr.  Webster, 
—  his  last  chance  of  influencing  the  delegates  in 
favor  of  that  just  and  grand  nomination.  On  this 
view  of  the  case  he  immediately  assented,  rose  and 
went  to  the  table.  He  was  too  unwell  to  take  any 
thing,  and  spoke  but  about  fifteen  minutes.  I  have 
never  heard  what  he  said;  it  may  be  imagined  by 
tKbse  who  knew  his  love  for  Mr.  Webster,  and  his 
deep  sense  of  the  injustice  likely  to  be  done  him ;  but 
it  carried  away  that  little  audience  as  with  a  whirl- 
wind. They  seemed  half  beside  themselves,  —  sprang 


1850-1855.]  PHI    BETA    KAPPA    SOCIETY.  279 

from  their  seats,  jumped  upon  the  chairs  and  benches, 
broke  their  glasses,  and  acted  like  wild  men.  But  the 
efforts  of  the  friends  of  Mr.  Webster  were  without 
avail.  The  Southern  members  offered  to  come  with 
one  hundred  and  six  votes,  when  forty  votes  should 
be  obtained  from  the  North ;  but  so  firmly  determined 
were  some  of  the  Northern  delegates,  that  this  num- 
ber could  not  be  found.  The  vote  for  Mr.  Webster 
never  exceeded  thirty-two.  At  the  fifty-third  ballot 
Gen.  Scott  received  the  nomination. 

In  August,  1852,  Mr.  Choate  addressed  the  Phi 
Beta  Kappa  Society  of  the  University  of  Vermont,  on 
the  "  Intervention  of  the  New  World  in  the  affairs 
of  the  Old ;  —  the  Duty,  the  Limitations,  and  the 
Modes."  It  was  high-toned,  conservative,  and  wise. 
The  subject  was  suggested  by  recent  events  in  the 
East,  and  especially  by  the  visit  of  Kossuth  to  this 
country.  The  oration  opened  with  the  following 
tribute  to  the  eloquent  Hungarian. 

"To  his  eye  who  observes  the  present  of  our  own 
country,  and  of  the  age,  heedfully,  —  looking  before 
and  after,  every  day  offers  some  incident  which  first 
awakens  a  vivid  emotion,  and  then  teaches  some 
great  duty.  Contemplate,  then,  a  single  one  of  such 
a  class  of  incidents ;  give  room  to  the  emotions  it 
stirs ;  gather  up  the  lessons  of  which  it  is  full. 

"  On  the  fifth  day  of  the  last  December,  there  came 
to  this  land  a  man  of  alien  blood,  of  foreign  and  un- 
familiar habit,  costume,  and  accent;  yet  the  most  elo- 
quent of  speech,  according  to  his  mode,  —  the  most 
eloquent  by  his  history  and  circumstances,  —  the  most 
eloquent  by  his  mission  and  topics,  whom  the  world 


280  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS  CHOATE.        [CHAP.  VIII. 

lias,  for  many  ages,  seen ;  and  began  among  us  a 
brief  sojourn,  —  began,  say  rather,  a  brief  and  strange, 
eventful  pilgrimage,  which  is  just  now  concluded. 
Imperfect  in  his  mastery  of  our  tongue,  —  he  took  his 
first  lessons  in  the  little  room  over  the  barrack-gate 
of  Buda,  a  few  months  before,  —  his  only  practice  in 
it  had  been  a  few  speeches  to  quite  uncritical  audi- 
ences in  Southampton,  in  Birmingham,  Manchester, 
and  Guildhall ;  bred  in  a  school  of  taste  and  general 
culture  with  which  our  Anglo-Saxon  training  has 
little  affinity  and  little  sympathy ;  the  representative 
and  impersonation,  though  not,  I  believe,  the  native 
child,  of  a  race  from  the  East,  planted  some  centuries 
ago  in  Europe,  but  Oriental  still  as  ever,  in  all  but  its 
Christianity ;  the  pleader  of  a  cause  in  which  we 
might  seem  to  be  as  little  concerned  as  in  the  story 
of  the  lone  Pelops  or  that  of  Troy  divine,  coming 
before  us  even  such  —  that  silver  voice,  that  sad  ab- 
stracted ej^e,  before  which  one  image  seemed  alone  to 
hover,  one  procession  to  be  passing,  the  fallen  Hun- 
gary —  the  '  unnamed  demigods,'  her  thousands  of 
devoted  sons ;  that  earnest  and  full  soul,  laboring 
with  one  emotion,  has  held  thousands  and  thousands 
of  all  degrees  of  susceptibility  ;  the  coldness  and  self- 
control  of  the  East  —  the  more  spontaneous  sympa- 
thies of  the  West  —  the  masses  in  numbers  without 
number  —  Women  —  Scholars  —  our  greatest  names 
in  civil  places  —  by  the  seashore  —  in  banquet  halls 
—  in  halls  of  legislation  —  among  the  memories  of 
B'unker  Hill,  everywhere,  he  has  held  all,  with  a 
charm  as  absolute  as  that  with  which  the  Ancient 
Mariner  kept  back  the  bridal  guest  after  the  music  of 
the  marriage  feast  had  begun. 


1850-1855.]  PHI  BETA   KAPPA   SOCIETY.  281 

"  The  tribute  of  tears  and  applaudings ;  the  tribute 
of  sympathy  and  of  thoughts  too  deep  for  applaud- 
ings, too  deep  for  tears,  have  attested  his  sway.  For 
the  first  time  since  the  transcendent  genius  of  DEMOS- 
THENES strove  with  the  downward  age  of  Greece  ;  or 
since  the  Prophets  of  Israel  announced  —  each  tone 
of  the  hymn  grander,  sadder  than  before  —  the  suc- 
cessive footfalls  of  the  approaching  Assyrian  beneath 
whose  spear  the  Law  should  cease  and  the  vision  be 
seen  no  more  ;  our  ears,  our  hearts,  have  drunk  the 
sweetest,  most  mournful,  most  awful  of  the  words 
which  man  may  ever  utter,  or  may  ever  hear  —  the 
eloquence  of  an  Expiring  Nation. 

"  For  of  all  this  tide  of  speech,  flowing  without 
ebb,  there  was  one  source  only.  To  one  note  only 
was  the  harp  of  this  enchantment  strung.  It  was  an 
appeal  not  to  the  interests,  not  to  the  reason,  not  to 
the  prudence,  not  to  the  justice,. not  to  the  instructed 
conscience  of  America  and  England;  but  to  the  mere 
emotion  of  sympathy  for  a  single  family  of  man 
oppressed  by  another — contending  to  be  free  —  cloven 
down  on  the  field,  yet  again  erect ;  her  body  dead, 
her  spirit  incapable  to  die  ;  the  victim  of  treachery ; 
the  victim  of  power  ;  the  victim  of  intervention  ;  yet 
breathing,"  sighing,  lingering,  dying,  hoping,  through 
all  the  pain,  the  bliss  of  an  agony  of  glory  !  For  this 
perishing  nation  —  not  one  inhabitant  of  which  we 
ever  saw  ;  on  whose  territory  we  had  never  set  a  foot ; 
whose  books  we  had  never  read  ;  to  whose  ports  we 
never  traded ;  not  belonging  in  an  exact  sense  to  the 
circle  of  independent  States ;  a  province  rather  of  an 
Empire  "which  alone  is  known  to  international  law 
and  to  our  own  diplomacy ;  for  this  nation  he  sought 


282  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS  CHOATE.        [CHAP. 

pity  —  the  intervention,  the  armed  intervention,  the 
material  aid  of  pity ;  and  if  his  audiences  could  have 
had  their  will,  he  would  have  obtained  it,  without 
mixture  or  measure,  to  his  heart's  content ! 

"  When  shall  we  be  quite  certain  again  that  the 
lyre  of  Orpheus  did  not  kindle  the  savage  nature  to  a 
transient  discourse  of  reason, —  did  not  suspend  the 
labors  and  charm  the  pains  of  the  damned,  —  did  not 
la}-  the  keeper  of  the  grave  asleep,  and  win  back  Eury- 
dice  from  the  world  beyond  the  river,  to  the  warm, 
upper  air  ? 

"  And  now  that  this  pilgrimage  of  romance  is 
ended,  the  harp  hushed,  the  minstrel  gone,  let  us 
pause  a  moment  and  attend  to  the  lessons  and  gather 
up  the  uses  of  the  unaccustomed  performance." 

Immediately  after  this  college  anniversary  he  made 
a  brief  journey  to  Quebec,  going  along  the  accustomed 
line  of  travel  by  Montreal  and  the  St.  Lawrence,  and 
retracing  his  way  along  the  same  line  quite  to  New 
York.  This  naturally  led  him  to  the  places  distin- 
guished in  the  earlier  wars,  at  most  of  which  he 
stopped,  refreshing  and  verifying  his  knowledge,  kind- 
ling anew  his  patriotism  at  every  hallowed  spot,  from 
the  Falls  of  Montmorenci,  and  the  Plains  of  Abraham, 
to  the  mouth  of  the  Hudson.  "The  weather  was  de- 
lightful, and  the  trip  altogether  invigorating  to  both 
body  and  mind. 

In  the  fall  of  this  year,  the  country  suffered  a  loss, 
the  greatness  of  which  time  alone  can  disclose.  Mr. 
Choate  felt  it  not  only  as  an  irreparable  public  calam- 
ity, but  as  a  personal  bereavement,  for  which  there 
was  no  remedy. 


1850-1855.]  LETTER  TO   E.   JACKSON.  283 

From  the  Baltimore  Convention  the  friends 'of  Mr. 
Webster  returned  with  an  uncontrollable  feeling  of 
disappointment  and  with  a  deep  sense  of  wrong.  But 
before  the  day  of  election,  he,  for  whom  they  had 
struggled,  had  closed  his  eyes  for  ever  upon  this  earth. 
Mr.  Webster  died  on  the  24th  of  October.  On  the 
28th,  the  members  of  the  Suffolk  Bar  presented  to  the 
United  States  Circuit  Court,  then  in  session,  a  series 
of  resolutions  expressive  of  their  sense  of  the  loss, 
and  Mr.  Choate  with  other  eminent  lawyers  addressed 
the  court.  He  spoke  with  jentire  quietness  of  man- 
ner, and  with  the  deepest  feeling,  and  his  words 
seem  to  contain  the  germs  of  almost  all  the  eulogies 
afterwards  pronounced  upon  the  great  New  England 
statesman. 

As  soon  as  a  sense  of  propriety  would  allow,  Mr. 
Choate  received  solicitations  from  very  respectable 
bodies  in  different  parts  of  the  .country,  to  deliver  a 
more  formal  and  extended  eulogy.  He  accepted  that 
which  came  first,  from  the  Faculty  and  Students  of 
Dartmouth  College,  influenced  still  more,  perhaps,  by 
his  deep  and  truly  filial  affection  for  the  place.  After 
the  announcement  of  this  was  made  public,  he  re- 
ceived a  letter  from  a  gentleman  in  Connecticut,  sug- 
gesting resemblance  between  Mr.  Webster  and  some 
other  eminent  men,*  particularly  Sir  Walter  Scott. 
The  following  is  his  answer  :  — 

To  E.  JACKSON,  ESQ.,  Middletown,  Conn. 

"  BOSTON,  10th  Dec.  1852. 

"  DKAR  SIR,  —  I  was  extremely  struck  and  gratified  by 
the  kindness  of  your  note  to  me,  and  by  the  parallel  which  it 
suggested  and  pursued.  Scarcely  any  thing  in  literary  or  pub- 
lic biography  is  more  curious  or  just.  I  mentioned  the  thought 
to  Mr.  Curtis,  —  Geo.  T.  Curtis,  —  on  whom  it  made  in- 


284  MEMOIK  OF  RUFUS  CHOATE.        [CHAP.  VIIL 

stantly  the  same  impression.  I  think  the  patriotism  of  Fox 
was  less  trustworthy  (having  regard  to  his  stormy  ambition), 
and  his  character  less  balanced  and  dignified.  He  had  less 
eloquent  feeling  too,  and  less  poetical  feeling,  and  no  venera- 
tion, and  his  whole  intellectual  toil  was  one  mighty  tempest- 
uous debate.  In  naturalness,  warmth  of  heart,  and  prodigious 
general  ability  in  political  affairs  and  public  speech,  he  does 
remind  us  of  Mr.  Webster. 

"  But  to  Scott  the  likeness  is  quite  remarkable.  I  can  add 
nothing  to  your  conception  of  it,  —  but  of  that  I  shall  try  to 
profit.  Mr.  Curtis  told  me  that  '  if  Mr.  Jackson  could  have 
heard  Mr.  Webster's  conversations  with  regard  to  keeping 
the  Marshfield  estate  in  the  family,  he  would  have  been  more 
forcibly  reminded  of  Scott.'  Both  felt  the  desire  to  be  found- 
ers ;  neither  won  fortune,  nor  transmitted  inheritances  in 
lands.  Both  made  deep  and  permanent  impressions  wholly 
useful  on  their  time  and  the  next ;  and  both  linked  them- 
selves —  shall  we  say  for  ever  ?  —  to  the  fondest  affections 
as  well  as  reasonable  regards  of  very  intellectual  races. 
"I  am,  with  great  respect,  your  servant  and  friend, 

"  RUFUS  CHOATE." 

The  treatment  which  Mr.  Webster  received  at  the 
Baltimore  Convention  had  alienated  many  Whigs  at 
the  North,  and  inclined  them  to  vote  for  the  Demo- 
cratic electors.  Mr.  Choate's  position  will  be  indi- 
cated by  the  following  letter:  — 

"  To  HARVEY  JEWELL,  Esq.,  President  of  the  Young  Men's  Whig  Club. 

"  BOSTON,  30th  October,  1852. 

"  DEAR  SIR,  —  I  certainly  can  have  no  unwillingness  to 
repeat  quite  formally,  what  I  have  informally  said  so  many 
times  to  so  many  of  our  friends. 

"  That  I  regretted  very  keenly  our  failure  to  place  Mr. 
Webster  in  nomination,  I,  of  course,  have  never  disguised. 
So  much,  too,  did  I  love  him,  and  so  much,  so  filially  —  per- 
haps for  him  so  unnecessarily  —  desire,  that  in  all  things  his 
feelings  might  be  respected,  his  claims  acknowledged,  and  the 
effect  of  the  proceedings  of  the  Convention  on  him  mitigated, 
that,  although  I  have  ever  deemed  those  proceedings  as  oblig- 


1850-1855.]          LETTER   TO   HARVEY  JEWELL.  285 

ing  my  vote  as  a  Whig,  yet  I  had  decided  that  it  would  not 
be  decorous  or  right,  having  respect  to  those  relations  with 
him,  which  have  been  and  are  in  their  memory  so  dear  to  me, 
to  take  any  active  part  in  setting  on  the  head  of  any  other 
the  honors  which  he  had  earned. 

"  Hut  that  the  true  interests  of  the  country,  as  our  party 
has  ever  apprehended  those  interests,  require,  in  the  actual 
circumstances,  the  election  of  the  eminent  person  who  is  our 
regular  candidate,  I  cannot  doubt.  As  a  Whig,  still  a  Web- 
ster Whig,  —  standing  at  his  grave  and  revering  his  memory, 
I  think  that  more  of  his  spirit,  more  of  his  maxims  of  govern- 
ment, more  of  his  liberal  conservatism,  more  peace,  a  more 
assiduous  culture  of  that  which  we  have,  with  no  reckless 
grasping  for  that  which  we  have  not,  would  preside  in  the 
administration  of  Gen.  Scott  than  in  that  of  his  Democratic 
competitor  for  the  Presidency. 

"  There  are  good  men  who  esteemed  Mr.  Webster  and  Mr. 
Clay  so  highly  and  justly,  as  to  hope  that  while  they  lived, 
although  out  of  office,  their  counsels  would  still  be  of  power 
to  repress  the  tendencies  to  evil,  which  they  fear  from  the 
ascendancy  of  our  political  opponents.  But  now  that  those 
lights  are  passed  and  set,  must  we  not  all,  and  those  of  us  with 
a  special  solicitude,  who  followed  them  with  most  confidence, 
turn  to  others,  whose  associations  and  ties  of  party,  whose 
declared  opinions,  whose  conduct  of  affairs,  and  whose  ante- 
cedents afford  the  surest  trust  that  their  practical  politics  will 
be  those  which  we  have  so  advisedly  adopted,  and  so  long 
professed  ?  With  these  politics,  and  the  great  party  repre- 
senting them,  Gen.  Scott  is  identified.  His  election  would 
pledge  his  character  and  honor  to  seek  through  them,  and  by 
them,  the  common  good  and  general  welfare,  and  there  is  no 
reason  to  doubt  that  the  convictions  of  his  judgment  would 
guide  him  by  the  same  path.  Certainly  he  is  a  Whig ;  and 
he  has  rendered  the  country  great  services,  in  important  con- 
junctures, in  war  and  peace. 

"It  is  quite  needless  to  say,  then,  that  I  shall  vote  for  the 
regularly  nominated  Whig  ticket  of  electors.  He,  —  the  best 
beloved,  the  most  worthy,  —  is  in  his  grave.  Duty  subsists, 
still  and  ever,  and  I  am  entirely  persuaded  that  duty  requires 
of  me  this  vote. 

"  I  am,  respectfully,  your  obd't  serv't, 

CHOATB." 


286  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS   CHOATE.        [CHAP.  VIII. 

The  regular  correspondents  of  Mr.  Choate  were 
few.  He  had  not  much  time  to  give  up  even  to  that 
society  which  was  most  attractive.  Of  those  to  whom 
he  wrote  with  the  freedom  of  a  warm  and  sympathiz- 
ing friendship  were  Hon.  Charles  Eames  and  Mrs. 
Eames.  A  few  of  these  letters  have  been  kindly 
placed  at  my  disposal. 

"  BOSTON,  Dec.  4th,  1852. 

"MY  DEAR  MRS.  E., —  .  .  .  You  were  wholly  right, 
and  not  the  less  kind,  to  assume  an  explanation  of  my  silence 
consistent  with  my  fixed  and  enhancing  appreciation  of  your 
friendship.  .  .  . 

"  I  have  been  here  occasionally  and  hurriedly  only,  since 
I  last  wrote  you ;  but  my  chief  time  and  duties  have  been 
engaged  to  my  mother,  on  the  verge  of  a  timely  grave,  yet 
sick  beyond  the  mere  inflictions  of  eighty  years.  She  is 
living  yet,  and  better.  .  .  . 

"  Till  yesterday  I  had  nourished  a  secret,  but  great  thought 
of  just  running  on  to  Washington  for  four  days,  not  to  super- 
sede, but  to  prepare  for  my  January  visit.  Likewise,  I  could 
not  go.  ... 

"  I  am  to  congratulate  you,  and  Mr.  Eames,  personally,  on 
the  election  which  he  has  influenced  so  much.  May  every  re- 
ward he  would  seek  be  his.  Choose  wisely  and  well,  and  above 
all  fix  your  hearts  on  something  at  home.  But  why  should  I 
grudge  you  the  Fortunate  Isles,  the  Boulevards,  Damascus 
rose  cinctured,  if  you  wish  it?  Give  my  love  to  him.  Wish 
Mr.  Davis  and  Mr.  Everett  well.  '  Pray  (as  poor  Mr.  Web- 
ster said)  for  the  peace  of  Jerusalem,'  and  especially  for  your 
attached  friend, 

"  RUFUS  CHOATE." 

Early  in  1853,  Mr.  Choate  lost  his  aged  and  vener- 
able mother.  He  always  retained  for  her  the  most 
filial  respect  and  affection,  and  although  her  death, 
at  her  advanced  age,  was  not  unexpected,  it  filled 
him  with  deep  sorrow.  Almost  at  the  same  time 
he  received  from  Governor  Clifford  the  offer  of 


1850-1855.]     THE   MASSACHUSETTS   CONVENTION.        287 

the  Attorney-Generalship  of  the  State.  This  he 
accepted,  not  for  its  emoluments,  —  which  were  in- 
considerable, while  the  labor  was  great,  —  but  partly 
because  he  considered  it  an  honorable  position,  and 
in  part  because  he  was  desirous  of  being  freed  from 
a  certain  class  of  distasteful  cases  which  he  did  not 
feel  quite  at  liberty  to  decline.  The  great  labor  in 
this  office  arose  from  the  fact  that  judicial  interpreta- 
tion of  the  liquor  law  of  1852,  popularly  called  the 
"  Maine  Law,"  became  necessary,  and  a  large  number 
of  cases  came  under  his  charge  for  argument,  some 
of  them  involving  grave  constitutional  questions.  To 
the  study  of  these  cases  he  devoted  much  time  and 
labor.  The  criminal  nisi  prius  trials  he  disliked  ;  and 
this,  together  with  certain  mere  drudgeries  of  office, 
caused  him  to  resign  his  commission  after  holding  it  a 
little  more  than  a  year. 

On  the  3d  of  May,  1853,  the  third  convention  of 
the  delegates  of  the  people  of  Massachusetts  met  in 
Boston  to  revise  the  Constitution  of  the  State.  It  is 
doubtful  whether  an  abler  body  of  men  ever  assem- 
bled in  the  State.  Every  county  sent  its  best  and 
wisest  citizens.  The  convention  continued  its  sessions 
till  the  1st  of  August.  The  subjects  brought  into 
discussion  were  fundamental  to  the  being  and  pros- 
perity of  States.  In  this  dignified  and  weighty 
assembly  Mr.  Choate  spoke  on  some  of  the  most 
important  questions,  and  never  without  commanding 
the  highest  respect.  His  speeches  on  the  Basis  of 
Representation,  and  on  the  Judiciary  were  listened 
to  with  profound  interest,  and  will  rank  with  the  best 
specimens  of  deliberative  eloquence. 

During  this  summer,  and  in  the  midst  of  various 


288  MEMOIR   OF  RUFUS   CHOATE.        [CHAP.  VIII. 

distracting  public  and  professional  duties,  he  caught 
time  as  he  could,  for  preparing  the  eulogy  upon  Mr. 
Webster.  How  he  wrote  it  may  be  inferred  from  a 
little  anecdote  furnished  by  one  who  subsequently 
became  a  member  of  his  family  by  marrying  his 
youngest  daughter.1  "  I  returned  from  Europe,"  he 
says,  "  in  1853,  and  reached  Boston  the  7th  of  July. 
I  went  to  Mr.  Choate's  house  about  nine  o'clock  that 
evening,  and  found  him  in  his  chamber  reclining  in 
bed  in  a  half-sitting  posture.  On  his  knees  rested  an 
atlas,  lying  obliquely  ;  in  his  left  hand  he  held  a  lamp, 
while  another  was  balanced  on  a  book  ;  in  his  right 
hand  was  his  pen.  He  playfully  excused  himself  for 
not  shaking  hands  with  me,  saying  that  he  feared  the 
sharp  reproaches  of  Mrs.  C.  if  he  should  by  any  mis- 
chance spill  the  oil.  On  my  asking  him  what,  at  that 
time  of  night,  and  in  that  singular  position,  he  was 
doing,  he  said  he  was  trying  to  get  a  few  things 
together  to  say  at  Dartmouth  College  in  relation  to 
Mr.  Webster.  He  had  put  it  off  so  long,  he  said,  was 
so  hampered  with  work  at  his  office,  and  had  to  give 
so  much  time  to  the  Constitutional  Convention,  then 
in  session,  that  he  had  almost  made  up  his  mind  to 
write  to  the  officers  of  the  college  asking  to  be  let  off. 
'  If  I  deliver  it,'  he  added,  '  it  will  be  wholly  inade- 
quate to  the  theme.'  He  did  deliver  it,  however,  but 
he  said  to  me  the  day  before  he  went  to  Dartmouth, 
that  any  friend  of  his  would  stay  away,  for,  although 
so  much  time  was  given  to  write  it  in,  it  was  one  of 
the  most  hurried  things  he  had  ever  done." 

With  the  high  ideal  that  was  before  his  mind,  to 
him  "much   meditating"   on   the   greatness  of  Mr. 
'  Edward  Ellerton  Pratt,  Esq. 


1850-1855.]        LETTER  TO  HIS  DAUGHTER  SARAH.        289 

Webster,  and  feeling  how  interwoven  was  his  life 
with  the  later  history  of  the  country,  it  is  not  surpris- 
ing that  he  felt  the  insufficiency  of  any  eulogy.  Yet 
one  would  be  at  a  loss  to  know  where,  in  all  the 
records  of  such  eloquence,  for  fulness,  suggestiveness, 
and  discrimination,  for  richness  and  vitality,  for  beauty 
of  language  and  felicity  of  allusion,  for  compactness 
and  for  amplification,  to  find  another  to  equal  it. 

To  HIS  DAUGHTEK  SARAH. 

"Monday,  August,  1853. 

"DEAR  SALLIE, —  The  accompanying  letter  came  tome 
to-day,  and  I  send  it  with  alacrity.  I  wish  you  would  study 
calligraphy  in  it,  if  what  I  see  not  is  as  well  written  as  what 
I  do.  I  got  quietly  home,  to  a  cool,  empty  house,  unvexed 
of  mosquito,  sleeping  to  the  drowsy  cricket.  It  lightened  a 
little,  thundered  still  less,  and  rained  half  an  hour ;  but  the 
sensation,  the  consciousness  that  the  Sirian-tartarean  summer 
is  really  gone  —  though  it  is  sad  that  so  much  of  life  goes 
too  —  is  delightful.  Next  summer  will  probably  be  one  long 
April  or  October.  By  the  way,  the  dream  of  the  walnut 
grove  and  the  light-house  is  finished.  They  will  not  sell, 
and  the  whole  world  is  to  choose  from  yet.1  I  see  and  hear 
nothing  of  nobody.  I  bought  a  capital  book  to-day  by  Bun- 
gener,  called  '  Voltaire  and  his  Times,'  fifty  pages  of  which 
I  have  run  over.  He  is  the  author  of  '  Three  Sermons  under 
Louis  XV.,'  and  is  keen,  bright,  and  just,  according  to  my 
ideas,  as  far  as  I  have  gone.  My  course  this  week  is  rudely 
broken  in  upon  by  the  vileness  and  vulgarity  of  business, 
and  this  day  has  been  lean  of  good  books  and  rich  thoughts, 
turning  chiefly  on  whether  charcoal  is  an  animal  nuisance, 
and  whether  Dr.  Manning's  will  shall  stand.  Still,  Rufus  will 
be  glad  to  hear  I  read  my  JEschines  and  Cicero  and  German 
Martial,  and,  as  I  have  said,  this  Bungener. 

"  I  wish  you  would  all  come  home ;  that  is,  that  your  time 
had  arrived.  Pick  up,  dear  daughter,  health,  nerves,  and 
self-trust,  and  come  here  to  make  the  winter  of  our  discontent 
glorious  summer. 

"  Thank  your  dear  mother  and  Rufus  for  their  letter.     I 

1  Referring  to  a  project  of  purchasing  a  site  for  building  at  Essex. 

19 


290  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS   CHOATE.        [CHAP.  VIII. 

hope  for  Minnie  a  neck  without  a  crick,  and  a  lot  without  a 
crook,  if  one  may  be  so  jinglesome.  One  of  the  Choates  of 
Salem  called  in  my  absence,  —  if  Daniel  did  not  see  a  doppel- 
ganger,  in  a  dream,  —  but  which,  where  he  is,  what  he  wants, 
where  he  goes,  or  how  he  fares,  I  know  not.  I  would  invite 
him  to  dine,  if  I  knew  where  he  was.  Best  love  to  all. 
Tell  your  mother  I  don't  believe  I  shall  write  her  for  two  or 
three  days,  but  give  her,  and  all,  my  love.  I  like  the  court- 
house prospect  and  the  Bucolical  cow,  and  verdant  lawn  muck, 
as  Minnie  says.  Good-by,  all.  R.  C." 

During  this  autumn,  his  health,  which,  with  the  ex- 
ception of  severe  headaches,  had  been  generally  good, 
occasioned  himself  and  his  friends  some  anxiety.  He 
alludes  to  it  in  the  following  letters :  — 

To  MRS.  EAMES. 

"BOSTON,  Nov.  13,  1853. 

"  MY  DEAR  MRS.  EAMES, —  ...  I  had  a  narrow  escape 
from  going  just  now  to  New  York,  and  then  taking  a  flying 
aim  at  Washington.  The  Doctors  and  I  have  changed  all 
that,  and  resolved  that  instead  of  any  such  unsatisfactory 
splurging,  I  should  go  quietly  to  Washington,  like  a  grave 
citizen  and  elderly  lawyer,  and  make,  as  it  were,  a  business  of 
it,  see  my  friends,  try  a  case,  go  to  the  theatre  and  the  levee, 
and  all  the  rest  of  it,  say  in  December  or  January.  ...  I 
have  come  quite  near  being  placed  among  the  Emeritus  Pro- 
fessors in  the  great  life  university,  —  that  reserved  and  lament- 
able corps,  whose  '  long  day  is  done,'  and  who  may  sleep. 

"  There  again  the  Doctors  and  I  were  too  much  for  them, 
and  I  am  all  right  again,  with  injunctions  to  do  but  little,  nor 
do  that  little  long,  at  a  time.  Such  a  change  of  life  sets  me 
thinking,  which  is  disagreeable,  and  resolving,  which  only 
paves  bad  places  with  good  intentions.  .  .  . 

"  I  must  say  I  think  your  administration  —  toil  though  it 
does  and  spin  —  is  not  yet  arrayed  with  all  the  glory  of 
Solomon,  or  even  of  the  lilies  of  the  field. 

"  Yours  truly,  R.  CHOATE. 

u  P.  S.  —  Mr.  Everett  is  rising  in  my  telescope." 


1850-1855.]        LETTER   TO  EDWARD  EVERETT.  291 


To  MRS.    KAMI:-. 

"  BOSTON,  Dec.  17, 1853. 

"  Mr  DEAR  MRS.  EAMES,  —  I  took  the  liberty  yesterday 
to  address  to  you  the  first  two  volumes  of  Lord  J.  Russell's 
'Moore,'  and  to  ask  our  Little  &  Brown  to  include  it  in 
their  collections  for  the  Washington  Express.  Mine  I  have 
not  yet  received,  but  I  promise  myself  that  the  thing  will 
have  some  interest  with  those  old  people  at  least  who  began 
life,  as  I  did,  upon  '  I  Saw  from  the  Beach,'  '  Vale  of  Avoca,' 
'  Erin-go-Bragh,'  and  all  the  rest  of  it.  Whether  it  will  for 
you,  I  fear  and  doubt,  yet  you  will  agree  that  we  have  never 
seen  and  never  shall  see  any  thing  like  that  glorious  constella- 
tion of  poets  which  illustrated  the  first  twenty-five  or  thirty 
years  of  this  century,  and  which  has  set  to  the  last  star. 
Beaming  brightly  and  singing  like  a  seraph,  sometimes,  among 
these  lights  was  poor  Moore.  Therefore  I  hope  the  package 
will  go  safely  and  come  regularly  to  hand,  as  the  merchants' 
clerks  do  write. 

"  My  visit  to  Washington  recedes  like  any  horizon.  Mr. 
Davis  has  me  in  charge,  but  any  time  after  the  10th  of  Janu- 
ary, if  he  bids  me  come,  I  come.  Please  to  entreat  him  to 
hasten  that  day,  as  he  hopes  to  have  his  eulogy  read  and 
appreciated. 

"  Our  winter  has  come  frosty  but  kindly.  Thus  far,  as  a 
mere  matter  of  cold,  heat,  snow,  it  is  as  good  as  a  Washing- 
ton winter.  I  do  not  say  that  it  presents  just  the  same  ag- 
gregate and  intensity  of  moral,  social,  and  personal  interest. 

"  Please  give  my  best  regards  to  Mr.  Eames  and  all  friends. 
"  Most  truly  yours,  R.  CHOATE." 

The  following  letter  to  Mr.  Everett  (then  a  mem- 
ber of  the  United  States  Senate),  with  its  reference 
to  topics  of  great  national  importance,  will  explain 
itself :  — 

To  HON.  EDWARD  EVERETT. 

"  BOSTON,  Feb.  4,  1854. 

"  DEAR  SIR,  —  I  have  not  delayed  to  answer  your  letter 
for  want  of  interest  in  the  subject,  and  still  less  from  want  of 
strong  personal  desire  that  your  own  course  should  be  as  for- 
tunate as  it  will  be  conspicuous  and  influencive.  But  in 


292  MEMOIR  OF  EUFUS   CHOATE.        [CHAP.  VIII. 

truth,  I  did  not  know  enough  of  the  whole  ground  of  opinion 
and  duty  and  hazards,  to  make  my  suggestions  of  real  value, 
and  yet,  good  for  nothing  else,  they  might  mislead.  Mean- 
time, as  far  as  I  can  possibly  discern,  the  whole  free  world 
of  the  United  States  seems  likely  to  demand  the  observance 
of  the  Missouri  Compromise.  I  must  say,  that  I  think  that  a 
speech  and  a  course  adhering  to  that  great  adjustment,  and 
reconciling  that  with  the  compromises  of  1850,  will  be  claimed 
here,  and  I  should  be  amazed  and  grieved  if  this  could  do 
harm  anywhere.  Yet  for  myself,  I  should  consult  the  spirit 
of  the  proceeding  of  1850  and  execute  that,  whithersoever  it 
led.  But  I  cannot  yet  see  how  that  should  demand  such  a 
measure  as  this  of  Mr.  Douglas. 

''  The  result,  with  me  and  with  all  here,  is  that  we  feel  the 
deepest  solicitude  that  you  should  not  be  drawn  into  a  position 
which  can  impair  your  large  prospects,  and  that  we  hope  you 
may  defeat  the  further  extension  of  slavery  on  grounds  and 
by  reasonings  that  will  not  lose  you  one  American  heart  or 
judgment  anywhere. 

"  I  am  most  truly, 

"  Your  servant  and  friend, 

"  RUFUS  CHOATE." 

A  few  letters  here  to  his  son,  then  a  student  in 
Amherst  College,  and  to  his  daughter  Sarah,  will 
give  us  an  insight  into  the  thoughts  and  ways  of 
home. 

To  Etrrus  CHOATE,  JK. 

"BOSTON  Feb.  13,  1854.    Monday  morning,  six  o'clock. 

"  MY  DEAREST  SON,  —  I  am  afraid  the  elite  of  Amherst 
are  not  stirring  .quite  so  early  as  this,  but  as  my  writing  here 
by  my  lamp  does  not  disturb  you,  and  as  I  think  of  you 
always,  but  with  peculiar  interest  and  love  when  I  look  round 
my  study  at  this  early  hour,  I  will  say  a  word  while  M.  is 
waiting  for  the  coach  to  carry  him  to  the  Portland  cars. 

"  I  have  had  a  very  fatiguing  winter,  contending  —  as  the 
French  bulletins  used  to  say  when  badly  beaten  — '  with 
various  success.'  However,  I  have  had  my  share  of  causes, 
and  my  chief  grief,  after  S.'s  sickness,  has  been  that  I  have 
had  so  little  time  for  literary  readings.  Euripides  stands 
neglected  on  the  shelf,  Alcestis  dying  alone,  and  the  last 


1860-1855.]      LETTER  TO   HIS   DAUGHTER   SARAH.     293 

days  of  Augustus  are  as  if  Tacitus  had  not  recorded  them 
with  his  pen  of  steel.  You  are  happier  in  having  days  and 
nights  for  the  most  delightful  of  all  things,  the  studies  of 
college.  My  dear  son,  make  much  of  this  fleeting  hour,  and 
all  future  exertions  and  acquirements  will  be  easy.  .  .  .  To 
see  you  come  out  of  college  affectionate,  true,  pure,  and  a 
good  scholar,  to  begin  the  law  at  Cambridge  with  hope  and 
ambition,  is  the  desire  which  more  than  all  else  gives  interest 
to  my  future.  .  .  .  M.  has  gone.  Daniel  appears  with  the 
newspapers ;  it  approaches  sunrise,  and  I  must  turn  to 
prepare  for  '  Gray  et  al.  v.  Coburn,'  for  the  hour  and  a 
quarter  before  breakfast.  Good-by." 


To  HIS  DAUGHTER  SARAH. 

"  BOSTON,  July  9  [1854]. 

"  DEAREST  SALLIE,  —  I  was  delighted  to  find  your  letter 
and  mother's  on  my  return  from  the  broiled,  though  sea- 
girt Nantucket.  I  will  not  say  that  I  could  read  a  word  of 
it,  before  the  affectionate  and  craving  Helen  carried  it  off, 
—  snatched  it,  as  one  may  say,  from  the  unsated  parental 
jaws.  But  at  dinner  with  her  to-day  I  shall  recover  it  in- 
terpreted. 

"  I  am  sorry  the  geography  is  a  failure.  Astronomy  and 
St.  Pierre  —  stars  and  harmonies  of  earth,  I  hope  will  enable 
you  to  support  the  necessary  delay  in  finding  another.  Mean- 
time the  Russian  war  is  going  to  end  ;  the  Turkish  moons 
are  at  the  full ;  and  except  Kansas  and  Nebraska,  no  spot 
of  earth  has  a  particle  of  interest  adscititious,  present,  arid 
transient  — though  all  must  be  generally  known,  or  '  history 
her  ample  page  rich  with  the  spoils  of  time,'  inadequately 
unrolls.  I  much  fear  that  we  are  doomed  to  more  of  Malte 
Brun  and  of  the  crust  of  the  earth.  I  will  look,  however. 

"  I  am  rebuked  at  finding  that  the  great  treatises  on  Will 
and  Sin  were  not  written  at  West  Stockbridge,  after  all.  It 
follows,  first,  that  so  much  of  our  ride  was  what  Rufus  calls 
a  sell ;  secondly,  that  the  most  arrogant  memories  will  fail  — 
be  nonplussed  —  the  characters,  the  imagery,  as  Locke  says, 
fading  out  of  this  brass  and  marble ;  and  thirdly,  that  all 
external  beauty  of  scenery  is  mainly  created  and  projected 
from  within.  How  still  and  studious  looked  West  Stock- 


294  MEMOIR  OF  EUFUS  CHOATE.        [CHAP.  VIII. 

bridge  —  and  now  what  a  poor,  little,  half-starved  saw-mill 
of  a  situation  it  is ! 

'  The  disenchanted  earth  lost  half  its  lustre ; 
The  great  magician's  dead.' 

I  will  be  confident  of  nothing  again  — ( that 's  Poz,'  as  Miss 
Edgeworth's  story  —  or  somebody's,  has  it. 

"  Sallie,  if  it  is  cool  in  Lenox  —  if  there  is  one  cool  spot ; 
yea,  if  there  is  a  place  where  by  utmost  effort  of  abstraction, 
you  can  think  upon  the  frosty  Caucasus  ;  upon  the  leaves  of 
aspen  in  motion  ;  upon  any  mockery  or  mimicry  of  coolness 
and  zephyrs,  be  glad.  Our  house  glows  like  a  furnace ;  the 
library  seems  like  a  stable  of  brazen,  roasting  bulls  of  Pha- 
laris,  tyrant  of  Agrigentum  —  of  whom  you  read  in  De 
Quincey ;  and  I  woo  sleep  on  three  beds  and  a  sofa  in  vain. 
All  would  be  sick  here  —  and  I  already  am,  or  almost  so. 

"  I  hope  the  Astronomy  engages  you,  and  the  St.  Pierre. 
Botany  and  other  natural  history  will  soothe  you,  dear  child, 
when  the  burning  and  suggestive  words  of  mere  literature 
sting  as  serpents.  Good-by,  dearjille.  R.  C." 


To  RUFDS  CHOATE,  JR. 

"  BOSTON,  July  19, 1854. 

"  DEAREST  SON, —  I  was  grieved  when  I  got  home  to 
find  what  an  inhospitable  time  you  had  of  it.  If  you  had 
hinted  your  purpose,  Helen  surely  would  have  welcomed  you. 
I  could  not,  for  I  was  melting  beneath  the  Nantucket  court- 
house. Next  time  let  us  know,  that  we  may  make  your 
shortest  vacation  pleasant.  Yesterday  I  ought  to  have  been 
at  Washington.  What  they  have  done  I  know  not.  If  my 
friends  carried  an  adjournment  it  is  well.  If  not,  the  Library 
fuit,  as  the  expressive  perfect  tense  has  it. 

"  I  was  very  sorry  that  I  could  not  stay  longer  in  your 
poor  little  pleasant  room,  and  seem  to  get  more  into  your 
college  intimate  life.  It  glides  away  so  fast,  and  is  so  de- 
lightful a  portion  of  the  whole  term  of  life,  that  I  should 
envy  every  day  and  hour.  I  prized  mine.  Yet  now,  as  the 
poet  says,  it  is  my  grief  that  I  prized  it  no  more.  .  .  .  They 
will  rejoice  to  see  you  at  Lenox,  where  I  hope  to  meet  you. 
The  cool  weather  of  the  4th  continues,  and  seems  likely  to, 
till  men  call  on  Caucasus  to  bury  them  and  done  with  it." 


1860-1855.]        LETTER  TO  HIS  DAUGHTER  SARAH.       295 


To  RUFUS  CHOATE,  JR. 

"BOSTON,  24  Sept.  [1854.] 

"  MY  DEAR,  DEAR  SON,  —  You  were  very  good  to  write 
me,  and  if  1  had  not  been  rather  harder  at  work  than  ever 
before,  I  should  have  written  sooner.  I  have  just  finished 
an  insurance  trial  of  some  ten  or  eleven  days,  very  scrag gly 
and  ticklish  —  though  a  just  claim  —  and  won  it,  against  a 
very  strong  charge  of  the  judge.  Then  came  another  in- 
surance cause,  where  J.  and  1  were  for  the  office,  deft,  —  and 
had  the  luck  to  get  that  too,  in  three  or  four  hours.  I  had 
to  snatch  any  moment  to  write  a  little  address  for  Danvers. 
Altogether,  therefore,  I  am  utterly  prostrated  and  unstrung. 
I  would  give  a  thousand  dollars,  if  I  could  afford  it,  for  an 
undisturbed  rest  of  a  week.  The  house  is  now  in  most  per- 
fect order.  If  dear  mother,  Sallie,  Minnie,  and  you  were 
here,  it  would  be  more  perfect  even. 


To  HIS  DAUGHTER  SARAH. 

"Sept.  [1854.] 

"  MY  DEAR  SALLIE,  —  You  were  a  special  good  girl  to 
write  me  —  pausing  among  so  many  grand  spectacles,  laugh- 
ing girls,  and  moustached  artists  —  if  that  is  the  French  of 
it  —  and  I  should  have  written  before  if  I  had  not  been 
'  blowed.'  I  was  '  overworked  '  for  about  twelve  days,  and 
up  to  yesterday  morning,  when  I  came  out  of  the  pestilential 
court-house  to  compose  an  address  on  Knowledge,  for 
Danvers.  The  topic  is  new  and  the  thoughts  rise  slowly 
and  dubious.  However,  I  shall  go  through  this  also  —  as  a 
thief  through  a  horse-pond  —  in  the  simile  of  Lord  Chan- 
cellor Thurlow. 

"  The  autumn  here  now  outshines  itself.  Such  skies  and 
such  unblanched  green  leafiness,  and  occasional  peach  and 
plum,  I  have  never  seen.  Our  grapery  is,  as  it  were,  Floren- 
tine and  Mantuanical ;  but  for  mere  eating  I  have  preferred 
such  as  you  buy  of  the  common  dealers  in  the  article.  Lately 
I  have  given  no  dinners.  I  have  in  fact  for  ten  days  not 
dined  at  home,  but  at  the  restaurant.  To-morrow  I  hope  to 
be  at  home.  I  never  saw  the  house  so  clean,  lovely,  still, 
and  homelike.  They  have  washed  everything  —  unless  it 
is  Cicero  and  Demosthenes,  and  it  seems  to  me  their  very 
bronze  seems  sleek,  fleshly,  and  cleansed.  My  books  are  all 


296  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS  CHOATE.       [CHAP.  VTII. 

bound,  and  all  up  —  and  if  mother  and  you  were  here,  and 
Minnie,  and  I  could  rest,  rest,  rest,  one  day  —  one  week  — 
stock  still  —  still  as  a  '  statute  '  —  I  should  be  too  happy. 

"  I  have  just  written  your  mother  suggesting,  1st,  whether 
she  is  ever  coming  home  ;  2d,  when,  if  ever,  she  is  coming ; 
3d,  what  money  it  will  take  to  come,  to  bring  honey,  also 
you,  and  any  '  Jew  or  Jewess.' 

"  Good-by,  poor  dear  roe,  hart,  and  pelican  upon  the  moun- 
tains. I  look  at  the  picture  in  the  dining-room  daily,  and 
wonder  if  you  see  sights  so  brilliant  and  light  —  then  turn 
again  to  my  baked  apple,  farina,  or  what  not. 

"  Good-by,  dear  pet.  I  have  had  three  nights  to  sleep  in 
your  room.  All  well  at  Helen's.  Your  Voter." 

In  September,  1854,  Mr.  Choate  delivered  the 
address  at  the  dedication  of  the  Peabody  Institute  in 
South  Danvers.  This  institution  was  founded  by  the 
munificence  of  Geo.  Peabody,  Esq.,  of  London,  and 
from  the  first  was  regarded  with  great  interest  by  Mr. 
Choate,  who  watched  with  sincere  pleasure  the  pros- 
perity of  the  town  where  he  commenced  his  profes- 
sional life,  and  which  conferred  upon  him  his  first 
honors.  The  year  was  otherwise  filled  with  the  ordi- 
nary labors  of  the  law. 

In  the  mean  time  his  friend  Mr.  Eames  had  been 
appointed  Minister-Resident  at  Caraccas. 

To  ME.  EVERETT. 

"WINTHROP  PLACE,  Oct.  9,  1854. 

"  MY  DEAR  SIR,  —  I  thank  you  for  your  kind  invitation, 
and  should  have  the  truest  pleasure  in  accepting  it,  but  I  am 
so  much  the  victim  of  an  urgent  and  ignominious  malice  — 
as  Mr.  S.  Smith  might  say,  —  that  I  am  cruelly  forbidden  all 
such  opportunity. 

"  You  are  more  than  kind  to  the  Danvers  affair.     And 
really,  because  one  is  not  an  Academician,  is  he  not  therefore 
to  be  indulged  in  his  occasional  platitudes  and  commonplaces  ? 
"  I  am  most  truly 

"  Your  servant  and  friend, 

"  RDFUS  CHOATE." 


1850-1855.]  ACCIDENT  AND  ILLNESS.  297 

To  MRS.  EAMES. 

"BOSTON,  31st  Oct.  1854. 

"  MY  DEAR  M,RS.  EAMES,  —  I  have  been  imagining 
through  all  these  divine  days,  how  supreme  must  be  the 
beauty  on  all  things  about  you  —  and  have  sighed  for  the 
sight  of  all  that  scene  in  your  company  again.  Meanwhile 
the  leaf  falls,  and  the  last  lark  will  send  up  his  note  of  fare- 
well ;  the  school-ma'am  will  have  recovered,  and  the  school- 
house  will  be  coming  alive  with  the  various  hubbub  of 
childhood,  and  the  time  draws  on  when  you  will  go,  perhaps 
to  look  back  from  a  grander  Nature  to  that  plain  New  Eng- 
land solitude  which  you  have  found,  and  made,  so  delightful 
—  to  look  back  homesick  and  with  affectionate  sadness.  .  .  . 

"  I  have  seen  Mr.  Everett  once,  and  had  a  most  pleasant 
hour  —  not  unmingled  with  pain.  He  looks  despondingly 
outward ;  and  I  think  his  personal  hopes  are  turning  from 
politics  and  their  bubble  reputation.  In  his  library,  he 
seems  to  sit  above  all  annoyance,  at  the  centre  of  all  reason- 
able felicities  —  a  happy  and  great  character,  who  may  yet 
write  his  name  for  ever  on  our  history. 

"  I  hope  all  your  little,  and  thrice  dear  children  are  well, 
and  give  you  no  alarm.  They  seem  well,  happy,  and  of  rare 
goodness  and  interest.  If  it  should  so  happen  that  I  can  by 
any  possibility  see  you  and  Mr.  Eames  before  you  go  —  if  go 
you  must  —  I  mean  to  do  it  —  here  —  or  at  New  Braintree, 
or  in  New  York.  .  .  . 

"  Yours  truly, 

"R.  CHOATE." 

Notwithstanding  his  labors  and  periodical  suffering 
from  sick-headaches,  Mr.  Choate's  general  health  was 
good.  A  strong  constitution  and  vigorous  frame 
enabled  him  to  endure  a  vast  amount  of  work  with- 
out injury.  But  early  in  1855  he  met  with  an  acci- 
dent which  confined  him  for  several  months  to  his 
house  and  for  much  of  the  time  to  his  room.  While 
at  Dedham  during  the  trial  of  a  cause,  he  hit  his  knee 
against  the  corner  of  a  table.  This  brought  on  an 


298  MEMOIR   OF  RUFUS  CHOATE.        [CHAP.  VIII. 

inflammation  of  the  joint,  which  became  complicated 
with  other  ailments,  to  which  time  only  could  bring 
relief.1  During  this  period  of  seclusion,  he  was  not 
cut  off  from  the  solace  of  his  library,  nor  entirely 
unable  to  study.  He  never  more  fully  enjoyed  the 
society  of  his  friends,  giving  himself  up  freely  to  those 
whom  he  loved.  Mr.  Everett,  particularly,  used  to 
visit  him  regularly  two  or  three  times  a  week,  some- 
times to  bring  a  new  book,  sometimes  to  impart  in- 
telligence, not  generally  known,  always  to  bring 
sunlight  to  the  quiet  library  of  the  invalid.  So  much 
interested  had  both  become  in  this  unwonted  famil- 
iarity, that  on  Mr.  Choate's  resuming  his  professional 
labors,  Mr.  Everett  remarked  to  him,  that,  for  his 
own  sake,  he  could  only  wish  one  thing,  namely,  that 
he  might  hurt  his  knee  again.  To  that  friendly 
interest  Mr.  Choate  alludes  in  one  of  the  following 
letters,  both  bearing  the  same  date  :  — 

To  HON.  CHARLES  EAMES. 

"  BOSTON,  29th  June,  1855. 

"  DEAR  MR.  EAMES,  —  I  doubt  if  you  see  a  brighter  sun 
or  drink  a  balmier  air  than  I  do  to-day,  but  I  hope  you  are 
as  well  as  the  rosy-fingered  June  of  New  England  could 
make  you.  Our  summer,  they  say,  is  cool  and  backward ; 
but  whoso  desires  any  thing  diviner  than  this  morning  may 
go  farther  and  fare  worse. 

"I  thank  you  and  Mrs.  Eames  for  your  kind  remem- 
brances. I  have  had  a  pretty  sorry  spring  of  it ;  but  it  may 
be  accepted  for  some  years  of  indifferent  health  in  the  future. 
My  physicians  talk  of  change  of  life  —  renovation  —  rejuve- 

1  As  a  result  of  the  accident,  he  was  obliged  to  submit  to  a  slight 
surgical  operation ;  but  so  sensitive  was  he  to  physical  suffering,  that 
even  this  made  a  considerable  draft  upon  his  nervous  energies.  He 
took  ether,  and  afterwards  remarked  to  a  friend,  that  "  it  was  very 
pleasant  till  the  moment  of  utterly  surrendering  consciousness, — 
then  death  itself  could  not  have  been  more  awful." 


1850-1855.]  LETTER   TO   MRS.   EAMES.  299 

nescence  and  what  not  —  hoc  erat  in  votis  certainly  —  but 
who  knows  what  shall  be  on  the  morrow  ?  .  .  . 

"  Your  estate  is  gracious  that  keeps  you  out  of  hearing  of 
our  politics.  Any  thing  more  low  —  obscene  —  feculent  — 
the  manifold  oceanic  heavings  of  history  have  not  cast  up. 
We  shall  come  to  the  worship  of  onions  —  cats  —  and  things 
vermiculate.  '  Renown  and  grace  are  dead.'  '  There's 
nothing  serious  in  mortality.'  If  any  wiser  saw  or  instance, 
ancient  or  modern,  occurred  to  me  to  express  the  enormous 
impossible  inanity  of  American  things,  I  should  utter  it. 
Bless  your  lot  then,  which  gives  you  to  volcanoes,  earth- 
quakes, feather-cinctured  chiefs,  and  dusky  sights  of  the 
tropics.  I  wish  I  was  there  with  all  my  heart  —  that  I  do  — 

"  After  all,  the  Democratic  chance  is  best.  The  whole 
South  is  Pierce's  —  I  think  —  so  is  the  foreign  vote  of  the 
North.  So  will  be  Pennsylvania,  I  guess.  .  .  . 

"  I  write  to  Mrs.  Eames  and  send  love  to  her  and  the  babes. 

"  I  wish  you  health,  happiness,  and  treaties  of  immortal 
peace  and  fame.  Most  truly, 

"  Yours, 

"R.  CHOATE." 

HON.  CHARLES  EAMES,  &c.,  &c.,  &c.,  Caraccaa. 


To  MRS.  EAMES. 

"  BOSTON,  29th  June,  1855. 

"Mr  DEA.R  MRS.  EAMES,  — I  have  only  just  got  abroad 
after  a  confinement  of  a  matter  of  four  months,  and,  with  a 
hand  still  tremulous,  though  I  flatter  myself  legible  to  the  eye 
of  a  true  friendship,  I  would  send  you  my  love  and  good 
wishes  —  chiefly  and  first  congratulating  you  upon  your  safe 
arrival  at  that  vortex  of  palms  and  earthquakes  and  sea- 
change.  My  —  our  —  excellent  Mr.  Everett  has  reported 
with  some  frequency  of  you ;  and  here  comes  a  tin  case,  and 
a  little  letter,  more  tellingly  assuring  me  that  your  kindness 
is  untravelled,  and  that  you  remember  and  wish  to  be  remem- 
bered from  the  other  side  of  this  watery  wilderness  of 
separation.  .  .  . 

"  I  have  come  out  of  town  to-day  about  three  miles  to  my 
daughter  Bell's  —  to  '  lie  at  large  and  sing  the  glories  of  the 
circling  year'  —  as  Thomson,  or  who  was  he,  says  —  but 
more  particularly  and  properly  to  write  to  you.  She  and  her 


300  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS  CHOATE.        [CHAP.  VHI. 

husband,  not  expecting  me,  have  gone  into  Boston  ;  and  I  am 
alone  in  a  little  library  in  a  garden,  held,  as  it  were,  to  the 
very  breast  of  June.  It  is  our  summer  at  its  best  —  roses 
—  hens  and  chickens  —  green  peas  —  honeysuckle  —  cocks 
crowing  —  a  balmy  west  wind  heavy  with  sweets.  I  wish, 
instead  of  the  fierce  and  gigantic  heats  and  growths  and  out- 
landish glory  and  beauty  of  Caraccas  —  whose  end  is  to  be 
burned  —  you,  your  children,  and  Mr.  Eames  were  here  — 
'  pastoral  and  pathetic '  —  virtuously  and  contentedly  a  smell- 
ing of  this  new-mown  hay  and  walking  with  me  —  I,  on  two 
crutches  —  say  two  sticks  —  like  the  title  of  some  beastly 
French  novel  —  and  talking  over  the  old  times.  You  see 
Boston  through  the  trees,  and  hear  now  and  then  the  whistle 
of  invisible  cars  —  otherwise  you  might  fancy  yourself  fifty 
thousand  globes  from  cities  or  steam.  These  are  the  places 
and  the  moments  for  that  discourse  in  which  is  so  much  more 
of  our  happiness  than  in  actualities  of  duty,  or  even  in  hope. 

"  I  look  forward  with  longing  to  your  coming  back.  Come 
unchanged  all  of  you  —  except  the  children,  who  are  to  be 
bigger,  darker,  and  even  handsomer.  .  .  . 

"  I  mean  to  go  out  and  hear  Mr.  Everett  on  the  4th  of 
July,  at  his  native  Dorchester.  He  will  outdo  himself,  and 
I  wish  you  and  Mr.  Eames  could  hear  him.  He  has  been 
inexpressibly  kind  to  me  in  my  confinement. 

"  I  am  slowly  getting  well  —  nothing  remains  of  it  all  but 
a  disabled  knee,  and  that  is  slowly  getting  well  too.  .  .  . 

"  God  bless  you  all.  Write  by  every  wind  that  comes 
this  way. 

"  Yours  most  truly, 

«K.  CHOATE." 


1855-1858.]  LOVE   OF  THE   UNION.  301 


CHAPTER  IX. 

1855-1858. 

Lore  of  the  Union  —  Letter  to  the  Whig  Convention  at  Worcester, 
October,  1855  —  Letter  to  Rev.  Chandler  Robbins  — Letter  to  Mr. 
Harvey  —  Letter  to  Mr.  Everett  —  Lecture  on  the  Early  British 
Poets  of  this  Century,  March,  1856  —  Sir  Walter  Scott  —  Political 
Campaign  of  1856  —  Determines  to  support  Mr.  Buchanan  — 
Letter  to  the  Whigs  of  Maine  —  Address  at  Lowell  —  Letter  to 
J.  C.  Walsh  —  Professional  Position  —  His  Library  —  Lecture  on 
the  Eloquence  of  Revolutionary  Periods,  February,  1857  —  De- 
fence of  Mrs.  Dalton  —  Oration  before  the  Boston  Democratic 
Club,  July  4th,  1858. 

OF  all  feelings  and  sentiments  none  were  stronger  in 
Mr.  Choate's  mind  than  the  love  of  country.  But  it 
was  the  whole  country,  THE  ONE  UNDIVIDED  AND  INDI- 
VISIBLE NATION  that  absorbed  his  interest.  Strongly 
as  he  was  attached  to  Massachusetts,  —  and  no  son 
ever  loved  her  with  a  more  filial  devotion, — he  saw 
the  greatness  of  the  State  in  the  prosperity  of  the 
Union.  The  narrower  virtue  was  always  absorbed  in 
the  grander.  The  large  and  strong  patriotism  of 
Washington  and  Madison  and  Hamilton  and  Webster 
assumed  a  new  intensity  in  his  bosom.  Every  speech, 
every  lecture,  almost  every  public  utterance  of  his 
during  his  later  years,  is  full  of  this  spirit.  It  was 
the  side  on  which  his  sympathies  touched  those  of  the 
Democratic  party,  far  from  it  as  he  ever  had  been,  on 


302  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS  CHOATE.         [CHAP.  IX. 

so  many  points  of  national  policy.  "  There  are  a  good 
many  things,"  he  said  in  a  speech  at  "Worcester,  in 
1848,  "  that  I  like  in  the  Democratic  party.  I  like 
their  nationality  and  their  spirit  of  union,  after  all. 
I  like  the  American  feeling  that  pervades  the  masses." 
It  was  this  feeling,  not  merely  an  intellectual  convic- 
tion that  the  Union  was  necessary  for  safety  and 
prosperity,  but  the  nationality,  the  "  country's  ma- 
jestic presence,"  which  led  him  to  oppose  every 
political  scheme  which  looked  to  less  than  the  wel- 
fare of  the  whole.  This  feeling  of  patriotism  grew 
stronger  and  stronger  as  he  saw  others,  apparently 
indifferent  to  it,  or  proposing  measures  which,  by 
disregarding  the  interests  and  feelings  of  large  States, 
would  necessarily  tend,  as  he  thought,  to  make  them 
disloyal. 

From  the  illness  of  the  earlier  part  of  1855,  Mr. 
Choate  recovered  sufficiently  to  enter  with  some 
eagerness  into  the  political  contests  of  the  autumn. 
A  new  party,  called,  from  their  secret  organization, 
"  Know-nothings,"  and  subsequently  claiming  the 
name  of  "  American,"  had  sprung  up  in  several 
States,  and  in  Massachusetts  had  made  unexpected 
inroads  into  both  the  great  parties  which,  before, 
had  mainly  divided  the  people.  The  Whigs,  however, 
were  not  inclined  to  give  up  their  organization.  A 
convention  was  holden  in  Worcester  early  in  October. 
Mr.  Choate  was  one  of  the  delegates  from  Boston, 
and  not  being  able  to  attend,  sent  the  following  letter, 
the  concluding  sentence  of  which  has  passed  into  one 
of  the  watchwords  of  patriotism. 


1855-1858.]      LETTER  TO  THE  WHIG  CONVENTION.        803 


LETTER  TO  THE  WHIG  CONVENTION  AT  WORCESTER,  MASS. 

"BOSTON,  Oct.  1,  1855. 
"  Messrs.  Peter  Butler,  Jr.,  and  Bradley  N.  Cummings,  Secretaries,  Sfc.,  frc. 

"  GENTLEMEN, —  I  discover  that  my  engagements  will  not 
allow  me  to  attend  the  convention  to  be  holden  at 'Worcester 
to-morrow,  and  I  hope  that  it  is  not  too  late  to  fill  the 
vacancy. 

"  I  assure  the  Whigs  of  Boston  that  I  should  have  regarded 
it  as  a  duty  and  a  privilege,  if  it  had  been  practicable,  to 
serve  as  one  of  their  delegates.  The  business  which  the 
convention  meets  to  do  gives  it  extraordinary  attraction  as 
well  as  importance. 

"  Whether  we  are  dead,  as  reported  in  the  newspapers,  or, 
if  not,  whether  we  shall  fall  upon  our  own  swords  and  die 
even  so,  will  be  a  debate  possessing  the  interest  of  novelty  at 
least.  For  one,  I  deny  the  death,  and  object  to  the  suicide, 
and  should  be  glad  to  witness  the  indignation  and  laughter 
with  which  such  a  question  will  be  taken. 

"  If  there  shall  be  in  that  assembly  any  man,  who,  still  a 
Whig,  or  having  been  such,  now  proposes  to  dissolve  the  party, 
let  him  be  fully  heard  and  courteously  answered  upon  his  rea- 
sons. Let  him  declare  what  party  we  shall  join.  Neutrality 
in  any  sharp  civil  dissension  is  cowardly,  immoral,  and  dis- 
reputable. To  what  party,  then,  does  he  recommend  us  ?  I 
take  it  for  granted  it  will  not  be  to  the  Democratic ;  I  take  it 
for  granted,  also,  not  the  American.  To  what  other,  then  ? 
To  that  of  fusion  certainly,  to  the  Republican,  —  so  called,  I 
suppose,  because  it  is  organized  upon  a  doctrine,  and  aims  at 
ends,  and  appeals  to  feelings,  on  which  one  half  of  the  Republic, 
by  a  geographical  line,  is  irreconcilably  opposed  to  the  other. 
Even  to  that  party. 

"  Let  him  be  heard  on  his  reasons  for  deserting  our  con- 
nection and  joining  such  an  one.  To  me,  the  answer  to  them 
all,  to  all  such  as  I  have  heard,  or  can  imagine,  seems  ready 
and  decisive. 

"  Suppressing  entirely  all  that  natural  indignation  and  sense 
of  wounded  pride  and  grief  which  might  be  permitted  in  view 
of  such  a  proposition  to  Whigs  who  remember  their  history, 
—  the  names  of  the  good  and  wise  men  of  the  living  and  dead, 
that  have  illustrated  their  connection,  and  served  their  country 
through  it,  —  who  remember  their  grand  and  large  creed  of 


304  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS  CHOATE.          [CHAP.  IX. 

Union,  the  Constitution,  peace  with  honor,  nationality,  the 
development  and  culture  of  all  sources  of  material  growth,  the 
education  of  the  people,  the  industry  of  the  people, — suppress- 
ing the  emotions  which  Whigs,  remembering  this  creed  and  the 
fruits  it  has  borne,  and  may  yet  bear,  might  well  feel  towards 
the  tempter  and  the  temptation,  the  answer  to  all  the  argu- 
ments for  going  into  fusion  is  at  hand.  It  is  useless,  totally, 
for  all  the  objects  of  the  fusionist,  assuming  them  to  be  honest 
and  constitutional,  —  useless  and  prejudicial  to  those  objects; 
and  it  is  fraught,  moreover,  with  great  evil.  "What  are  the 
objects  of  the  fusionist  ?  To  restore  the  violated  compromise, 
or,  if  he  cannot  effect  that,  to  secure  to  the  inhabitants,  bond 
fide  such,  of  the  new  territory  the  unforced  choice  of  the 
domestic  institutions  which  they  prefer,  a  choice  certain,  in 
the  circumstances  of  that  country  now  or  soon  to  close  it 
against  slavery  for  ever.  These,  unless  he  courts  a  general 
disturbance  and  the  revelry  of  civil  '  battle-fields,'  are  his 
object ;  and  when  he  shall  prove  that  fusion  will  send  to 
Congress  men  who  will  labor  with  more  zeal  and  more  effect 
to  these  ends  than  such  Whigs  as  Mr.  Walley  is,  or  as  Mr. 
Rockwell  was,  —  with  a  truer  devotion  to  liberty  —  more 
obedient  to  the  general  sentiment  and  the  specific  exactions 
of  the  free  States  —  with  a  better  chance  to  touch  the  reason 
and  heart,  and  win  the  co-operation  of  good  men  in  all  sections, 
—  when  he  proves  this,  you  may  believe  him.  We  know  that 
the  Whig  representatives  of  Massachusetts  in  Congress  do 
and  must  completely  express  the  anti-slavery  sentiment  of 
Massachusetts,  so  far  as  they  may  be  expressed  under  the 
Constitution.  More  than  this  we  do  not  seek  to  express 
while  there  is  yet  a  Constitution.  Fusion  is  needless  for  the 
honest  objects  of  the  fusionist. 

"  But  the  evils  of  disbanding  such  a  party  as  ours  and  sub- 
stituting such  a  party  as  that !  See  what  it  fails  to  do.  Here 
is  a  new  and  great  political  party,  which  is  to  govern,  if  it 
can,  the  State  of  Massachusetts,  and  to  govern,  if  it  can,  the 
American  Union.  And  what  are  its  politics  ?  It  has  none. 
Who  knows  them?  Even  on  the  topic  of  slavery,  nobody 
knows,  that  I  am  aware  of,  what  in  certain  it  seeks  to  do, 
or  how  much  or  how  little  will  content  it.  Loud  in  general 
demonstration,  it  is  silent  or  evasive  on  particular  details. 

"  But  outside  of  the  topic  of  slavery,  what  are  its  politics  ? 
What,  in  the  most  general  outline,  is  its  creed  of  national  or 
State  policy  ?  How  does  it  interpret  the  Constitution  ?  What 


1855-1858.]      LETTER  TO  THE  WHIG  CONVENTION.       305 

is  its  theory  of  State  rights  ?  What  is  its' foreign  policy  ?  By 
what  measures  ;  by  what  school  of  politicians  ;  by  what  laws 
or  what  subjects ;  by  what  diplomacy ;  how,  generally,  does 
it  propose  to  accomplish  that  good,  and  prevent  that  evil,  and 
to  provide  for  those  wants  for  which  States  are  formed  and 
government  established  ?  Does  it  know  ?  Does  it  tell  ?  Are 
its  representatives  to  go  to  Congress  or  the  Legislature,  to 
speak  and  vote  on  slavery  only  ?  If  not,  on  what  else,  and 
on  which  side  of  it  ? 

"  A  party,  a  great  political  party,  without  politics,  is  a 
novelty  indeed.  Before  the  people  of  this  country  or  State 
enable  it  to  rule  them,  they  will  desire,  I  fancy,  a  little  more 
information  on  these  subjects.  We  all,  or  almost  OT,  of  the 
Free  States  who  recognize  the  Constitution,  think  on  slavery 
substantially  alike.  Before  we  make  men  Presidents  and 
Governors  and  Senators  and  Judges  and  Diplomatists,  we 
demand  to  see  what  else  besides  cheap,  easy,  unavoidable 
conformity  to  the  sectional  faith  on  that  one  topic,  they  can 
show  for  themselves. 

"  We  elect  them  not  to  deliver  written  lectures  to  assenting 
audiences  of  ladies  and  gentlemen,  —  to  kindle  the  inflamma- 
ble, and  exasperate  the  angry,  —  but  to  perform  the  duties  of 
practical  statesmanship  in  the  most  complicated  and  delicate 
political  system,  and  the  hardest  to  administer  in  the  world. 
Let  us,  at  least,  then,  know  their  politics.  Kept  totally  in 
the  dark  about  these,  we  do  know  that  this  party  of  fusion 
is,  in  the  truest  of  all  senses,  and  the  worst  of  all  senses,  a 
geographical  party.  What  argument  against  it  can  we  add 
to  this  ?  Such  a  party,  like  war,  is  to  be  made  when  it  is 
necessary.  If  it  is  not  necessary,  it  is  like  war,  too,  a  tremen- 
dous and  uncompensated  evil.  When  it  shall  have  become 
necessary,  the  eternal  separation  will  have  begun.  That  time, 
that  end,  is  not  yet.  Let  us  not  hasten,  and  not  anticipate 
it,  by  so  rash  an  innovation  as  this.  • 

"  Parties  in  this  country  heretofore  have  helped,  not  delayed, 
the  slow  and  difficult  growth  of  a  consummated  nationality. 
Our  discussions  have  been  sharp  ;  the  contest  for  honor  and 
power  keen  ;  the  disputes  about  principles  and  measures,  hot 
and  prolonged.  But  it  was  in  our  country's  majestic  presence 
that  we  contended.  It  was  from  her  hand  that  we  solicited 
the  prize.  Whoever  lost  or  won,  we  loved  her  better.  Our 
allies  were  everywhere.  There  were  no  Alleghanies  nor 
Mississippi  rivers  in  our  politics. 

2J 


806  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS   CHOATE.          [CHAP.  IX, 

"  Such  was  the  felicity  of  our  condition,  that  the  very  dis- 
sensions which  rent  small  republics  in  twain,  weJded  and 
compacted  the  vast  fabric  of  our  own.  Does  he  who  would 
substitute  for  this  form  of  conducting  our  civil  differences  a 
geographical  party,  completely  understand  his  own  work? 
Does  he  consider  how  vast  an  educational  instrumentality  the 
party  life  and  influence  compose  ?  Does  he  forget  how  the 
public  opinion  of  a  people  is  created,  and  that  when  created 
it  determines  their  history  ?  All  party  organization  tends 
towards  faction.  This  is  its  evil.  But  it  is  inseparable  from 
free  governments.  To  choose  his  political  connection  aright 
is  the  most  delicate  and  difficult  duty  of  the  citizen.  We 
have  msme  our  choice,  and  we  abide  by  it.  We  join  ourselves 
to  no  party  that  does  not  carry  the  flag  and  keep  step  to  the 
music  of  the  Union. 

"  I  am,  gentlemen,  your  fellow-citizen, 

"  RUFUS  CHOATE." 

During  the  election  contest  a  large  meeting  of  the 
Whigs  of  Boston  and  its  vicinity  was  held  in  Faneuil 
Hall.  It  was  addressed,  among  others,  by  Mr.  Choate, 
in  a  strain  of  lofty  and  urgent  patriotism  such  as  has 
seldom  been  heard  in  a  State  election.  His  mind 
soared  to  heights  from  which  it  saw  not  the  temporary 
interest  of  a  State  alone,  nor  the  success  of  this  or 
that  candidate  for  honorable  office,  but  "  the  giant 
forms  of  empires  "  on  their  way  to  prosperity  or  ruin. 
How  deeply  his  mind  was  moved  is  attested  not  only 
by  the  speech  itself,  but  by  his  future  action.  The 
jelection  was  not  favorable  to  the  Whigs,  nor  yet  to  the 
Republicans.  A  letter  written  soon  afterwards  will 
incidentally  show  the  means  by  which  he  solaced 
himself  under  defeat,  where  not  the  slightest  per- 
sonal interest  was  at  stake,  and  what  were  still  his 
hopes. 


1865-1858.]    LETTER  TO  REV.  CHANDLER  ROBBLNS.      307 


To  REV.  CHANDLER  ROBBINS. 

"BOSTON,  Nov.  12, 1855. 

"  DEAR  SIR, —  Absence  from  the  city  since  Tuesday  has 
prevented  me  from  expressing  my  most  grateful,  my  warmest 
thanks  for  your  note.  In  the  circumstances  and  feelings  of 
the  moment,  it  was  soothing  in  the  highest  degree.  On  a 
more  deliberate  reading,  and  less  on  personal  reasons,  it  has 
afforded  even  more  gratification.  We  are  the  most  fortunate 
of  the  nations,  and  owe  the  largest  debt  to  humanity,  with 
the  perfect  certainty  of  paying  it,  to  one  hundred  cents  on 
the  dollar,  with  interest,  and  in  the  natural  lifetime  of  the 
State,  if  we  will  only  consent  to  live  on,  and  obey  the  law  of 
normal  growth.  And  yet  they  would  enlist  what  they  call 
the  moral  sentiment,  and  incite  us  to  immediate  or  certain 
national  self-murder.  I  rejoice  with  great  joy  that  such  dis- 
tempered ethics  are  disowned  of  a  teacher  of  religion,  —  a 
cultivated,  humane,  and  just  man  ;  and  that  a  patriotism, 
whose  first  care  is  for  the  Union,  — '  being,  before  even  well- 
being,'  —  is  regarded  of  such  authority  as  high  among  the 
larger  virtues. 

"  I  may  be  permitted  to  say,  that  although  the  details  and 
instruments  are  less  satisfactory  than  could  have  been  wished, 
the  election  is  a  real  victory  of  intense  American  feeling,  in 
which  even  you  may  have  pleasure.  I  think  it  leaves  only 
two  great  parties,  both  national  to  the  cannon's  mouth,  in  the 
field. 

"  Your  delightful  allusion  to  Mr.  Webster  excites  even 
warmer  emotions.  I  never  think  of  him  without  recalling 
the  fine,  pathetic,  unfinished  sentence  of  Burke,  in  reference 
to  Lord  Keppel :  '  On  that  day  I  had  a  loss  in  Lord  Keppel ; 
but  the  public  loss  of  him  in  this  awful  crisis ! ' 

"  Yet  it  shall  not,  I  think,  be  the  generation  which  saw 
him  that  shall  witness  the  overthrow  of  the  system  to  which 
he  devoted  himself  with  such  desperate  fidelity. 
"  I  am,  with  the  highest  regard, 

"  Your  obliged  humble  servant, 

"  RUFUS  CHOATE." 

The  following  letters  refer  to  a  speech  made  at  a 
dinner  on  the  birthday  of  Mr.  Webster,  where  Mr. 
Everett  presided,  and  which  Mr.  Choate  was  prevented 
by  illness  from  attending  :  — 


308  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS   CHOATE.         [CHAP.  IX. 


To  PETER  HARVEY,  ESQ. 

"  Saturday  eve. 

"  DEAR  MR.  HARVEY,  —  I  cannot  go  to  bed  without  con- 
gratulating you  personally  on  the  most  brilliant  success  of 
our  commemoration.  Every  thing  is  due  to  your  energy, 
good  judgment,  and  good  nature.  The  universal  voice  pro- 
nounces the  whole  splendid. 

"  I  wish  you  to  thank  Mrs.  Harvey  especially,  too,  for  her 
politeness  to  my  family,  and  to  express  the  hope  that  she 
enjoyed  the  occasion  as  much  as  they  did,  and  suffer  as  little 
from  it.  If  it  had  pleased  Providence  that  I  could  have 
been  with  you,  I  should  have  no  regrets  but  that  so  delight- 
ful an  occasion  is  also  so  transient.  Mr.  Everett  outdid  him- 
self decidedly.  So  fresh,  so  genial,'  just,  and  eloquent,  in  the 
most  attractive  sense. 

"  I  hope  you  will  live,  and  that  Mrs.  Harvey  will  live,  to 
celebrate  this  birthday  one  hundred  times  more  yet,  and  find 
life  still  sweet. 

"  I  am  most  truly  yours, 

"R.  CHOATE." 


To  HON.  EDWARD  EVERETT. 

"Saturday  eve,  Jan.  19,  1856. 

"  DEAR  MR.  EVERETT, — It  signifies  nothing  what  I  say 
in  all  this  din  and  tempest  of  applause ;  but  I  believe  that 
nobody  is  more  sincerely  glad  at  your  most  signal  success, 
and  I  know  that  nobody  has  read  you  with  more  delight.  It 
was  only  within  an  hour  or  two  that  I  was  so  well  as  to  do 
this  carefully,  though  I  heard  it  all  read  early  in  the  day. 
Our  mighty  friend  himself,  and  even  the  nature  that  he  so 
loved,  come  mended,  —  say  rather,  show  clearer  and  nearer, 
like  those  headlands  in  the  Homeric  moonlight  landscape.  I 
most  heartily  thank  you  for  presiding;  it  has  won  or  con- 
firmed many  hearts ;  and  I  can  never  cease  to  regret  that  I 
could  not  have  seen  and  heard  what  all  felt  to  be  an  effort  of 
extraordinary  felicity. 

"  I  am,  very  truly,  your  servant  and  friend, 

"  RUFUS  CHOATE." 


1855-1858.]  LECTURE   ON   THE  POETS.  309 

Boston  has  long  been  noted  for  its  popular  lectures. 
Mr.  Choate  was  frequently  solicited  to  occupy  an 
evening  of  the  prescribed  course  ;  and,  notwithstand- 
ing the  pressure  of  other  engagements,  often  did  so. 
He  generally  availed  himself  of  some  recent  note- 
worthy event,  —  civil  or  literary,  —  which  served  to 
suggest  the  eloquent  and  wise  discourse.  On  the  13th 
of  March,  1856,  he  closed  the  series  of  lectures  before 
the  Mercantile  Library  Association,  by  an  address  on 
"Our  Obligations  to  the  British  Poets  of  the  first 
twenty  years  of  this  Century."  The  theme  was  a 
favorite  one,  and  carried  him  back  to  college  days  and 
his  earlier  life.  The  lecture  was  announced,  for 
brevhy  and  convenience,  as  upon  Samuel  Rogers, 
whose  death  had  occurred  a  few  months  before,  al- 
though that  poet  was  but  one  among  many' whose  life 
and  influence  were  cursorily  noticed. 

"  I  appreciate  quite  well,"  he  said,  "  that  to  a  great 
many  of  you  this  once  resplendent  circle  is  a  little  out 
of  the  fashion.  Their  task  is  done,  you  say ;  their 
song  hath  ceased.  .  .  .  You  began  to  read  fine  writing, 
verse  and  prose,  at  a  time  when  other  names  had 
gained,  or  were  gaining,  the  large  ear  of  the  gentle 
public,  .  .  .  when  Eugene  Aram,  or  Ernest  Maltrav- 
ers,  or  Vivian  Grey,  or  the  Pickwick  Papers,  had  begun 
to  elbow  Waverley,  the  Antiquary,  and  Ivanhoe  off 
the  table ;  .  .  .  after  the  '  last  new  poem '  began  to  be 
more  read  than  the  matchless  Fourth  Canto  of  Childe 
Harold,  ...  or  the  grand,  melancholy,  and  immortal 
Platonisms  and  Miltonisms  of  the  Excursion.  So 
much  the  worse  for  yourselves ! 

"  But  if  there  be  any  in  this  assembly  of  the  age  of 
fifty  or  thereabout,  you  will  hold  a  different  theory. 


310  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS  CHOATE.         [CHAP.  IX. 

You  will  look  back  not  without  delight,  to  the  time, 
say  from  1812  to  1820,  when  this  brilliant  and  still 
young  school  had  fairly  won  the  general  voice,  —  to 
that  time  when  exactly  as  taste,  fancy,  the  emotions, 
were  beginning  to  unfold  and  to  pronounce  them- 
selves, and  to  give  direction  to  your  solitary  and 
voluntary  reading,  these  armed  flights  of  genius  came 
streaming  from  beyond  the  sea,  —  that  time  when,  as 
you  came  into  your  room  from  a  college  recitation  in 
which  you  had  been  badly  screwed  in  the  eighth  pro- 
position on  the  Ellipse  in  Webber's  Conic  Sections,  or 
in  some  passage  of  Tacitus  in  an  edition  with  few  notes 
and  a  corrupt  text,  and  no  translation,  —  you  found 
Rob  Roy,  or  The  Astrologer,  or  The  Antiquary,  just 
republished  and  waiting  your  hands  uncut ;  when, 
being  asked  if  there  were  any  thing  new,  the  bookseller 
would  demurely  and  apologetically  say,  '  No,  nothing 
very  particular ;  there  was  just  a  Fourth  Canto  of 
Childe  Harold,  or  a  little  pamphlet  edition  of  Man- 
fred, or  a  thing  of  Rogers,  the  author  of  The  Pleasures 
of  Memory,  called  Human  life  ;  or  Lines  of  Coleridge 
on  a  view  of  the  Alps  before  sunrise  in  the  vale  of 
Chamouny,  or  The  Excursion,  or  Corinne,  or  Ger- 
many of  Madame  de  Stael,  nothing  else,  I  believe.' 
You  who  can  remember  this  will  sigh  and  say,  — 

'  'Twas  a  light  that  ne'er  can  shine  again 
On  life's  dull  stream.' 

So  might  you  say,  whatever  their  worth  intrinsically ; 
for  to  you,  —  to  us,  —  read  in  the  age  of  admiration, 
—  of  the  first  pulse  of  the  emotions  beating  unwont- 
edly, — associated  with  college  contentions  and  friend- 
ships ;  the  walk  on  the  gleaming,  Rhine-like,  riverside  ; 


1855-1858.]  LECTURE   ON   THE   POETS.  311 

the  seat  of  rock  and  moss  under  the  pine  singing  of 
Theocritus ;  with  all  fair  ideals  revelling  in  the  soul 
before 

'  The  trumpet  call  of  truth 
Pealed  on  the  idle  dreams  of  youth,'  — 

to  you  they  had  a  spell  beyond  their  value  and  a  place 
in  your  culture  that  nothing  can  share." 

Of  them  all  —  that  constellation  of  brilliant  writers 
—  no  one  interested  Mr.  Choate  so  much  as  Sir  Walter 
Scott.  The  whole  lecture  is,  of  necessity,  somewhat 
desultory ;  but  one  cannot  well  pass  by  the  general 
tribute  to  Scott,  and  the  brief  defence  of  him  from  the 
criticism  of  Mr.  Carlyle  :  — 

"  And  now,  of  all  that  bright  circle,  whom  shall  we 
say  we  love  best?  Each  has  his  choice.  Our  own 
moods  have  them.  But  do  I  deceive  myself  in  sup- 
posing, that  if  the  collective  voice  of  all  who  speak 
the  language  of  England  could  be  gathered  by  ballot, 
it  would  award  the  laurel  by  about  a  two-thirds 
majority  to  Walter  Scott,  —  to  the  prose  romance  of 
Scott  ?  Of  him,  no  one  knows  where  to  begin  or  end. 
Consider  first,  to  how  many  minds,  to  how  many 
moods  of  mind,  these  pages  give  the  pleasure  for 
which  books  of  elegant  literature  are  written.  To 
enjoy  them,  you  need  be  in  no  specific  and  induced 
state  ;  you  need  not  be  gloomy,  hating,  pursued  by  a 
fury,  a  sorrow,  a  remorse,  or  chasing  a  pale  visionary 
phantom  of  love  and  hope,  as  you  must  to  read  Byron ; 
you  need  not  be  smitten  with  a  turn  to  mysticism  and 
the  transcendental  and  the  Platonic,  as  you  must  be 
to  relish  a  great  deal  of  Wordsworth ;  you  need  not 
feel  any  special  passion,  nor  acknowledge  any  very 
pronounced  vocation,  for  reforming  school-houses  and 


312  MEMOIR   OF   RUFUS   CHOATE.        [CHAP.  IX. 

alms-houses,  for  shortening  the  hours  and  raising  the 
wages  of  weavers'  labor,  for  pulling  down  the  aris- 
tocracy, the  offices  and  Court  of  Chancery,  and  recon- 
structing society  in  general,  as  you  must  to  enjoy  very 
much  even  of  our  excellent  Dickens.  You  need  only 
to  be  a  man  or  woman,  with  a  love  of  reading  and 
snatching  your  chances  in  the  interstitial  spaces  of 
life's  idle  business  to  indulge  it,  and  that  is  all.  And 
why  so  ?  Because  that  genius  was  so  healthful  as 
well  as  so  large  and  strong,  because  that  humanity 
was  so  comprehensive,  because  that  capacity  was  so 
univefcal,  —  that  survey  of  life  so  wide  and  thorough, 
—  that  knowledge  of  man  in  his  general  nature  as 
wejl  as  in  his  particular,  so  deep  and  true  !  Therefore 
it  is,  he  gives  you  what  Homer  gives,  what  Shakspeare 
gives,  —  not  crotchets,  not  deformities,  not  abnormal 
and  exceptional  things  or  states,  not  intensities,  ex- 
travagancies, and  spasms  ;  but  he  gives  you  an  apoc- 
alypse of  life,  from  its  sublimest  moments  to  its 
minutest  manners,  such  as  never  was  communicated 
but  by  two  other  human  imaginations.  In  that  pan- 
orama of  course,  as  in  the  mighty,  complicated,  and 
many-colored  original  of  nature  and  history,  there  are 
all  sorts  of  things,  the  jester,  the  humorist,  the  appari- 
tion from  the  dead,  even  as  there  is  the  clown  grave- 
digger  in  Hamlet,  the  fool  in  Lear,  the  drunken 
porter  in  Macbeth,  Thersites  in  the  Iliad  ;  but  they 
are  in  proportion  and  place.  The  final  aggregate  of 
impression  is  true.  You  have  not  read  that  particular 
chapter  in  the  great  Book  of  Life  before ;  but  you 
recognize  it  in  a  moment  ;  you  learn  from  it.  These 
men  and  women  you  had  not  known  by  name  ;  you 
see  them  tried  by  imaginary  and  romantic  circum- 


1855-1858.]  LECTURE  ON   THE  POETS.  313 

stances  certainly,  but  they  reveal  and  illustrate  and 
glorify  the  genuine  humanity  which  you  know  to  be 
such  at  its  best ;  courage,  honor,  love,  truth,  prin- 
ciple, duty  ;  tried  on  high  places  and  on  low ;  in  the 
hour  of  battle  ;  in  the  slow  approach  of  death  ;  in  be- 
reavement ;  in  joy  ;  in  all  that  varied  eventful  ebb  and 
flow  that  makes  life. 

"This  is  the  reason,  —  one  reason,  —  why  so  many 
more,  in  so  many  more  moods,  love  Am,  than  any 
other  one  in  that  splendid  companionship.  True  it  is 
no  doubt,  that  even  above  the  sound  of  a  universal 
and  instant  popularity,  there  is  a  charm  beyond. 
There  is  a  twofold  charm  beyond.  They  are,  first, 
the  prose  romances  of  a  poet ;  not  the  downright  prose 
of  Smollett,  of  Defoe,  and  of  Fielding,  nor  the  pathetic 
prose  of  Richardson,  nor  the  brilliant  and  elegant 
prose  of  Edgeworth,  or  Hope  in  Anastasius.  They 
sparkle  and  burn  with  that  element,  impossible  to 
counterfeit,  impossible  to  destroy,  —  a  genuine  poetry. 
Sometimes  the  whole  novel  is  a  poem.  Who  does 
not  feel  this  in  every  page  of  the  Bride  of  Lammer- 
moor  ?  The  story  is  simple,  its  incidents  are  few  ;  yet 
how  like  a  tragedy,  brooded  over  by  Destiny,  it 
sweeps  on,  from  that  disturbed  funeral  of  old  Lord 
Ra venswood,  —  the  procession  interrupted — the  father 
on  the  b\pr  —  the  mourning  child  by  his  side,  outraged 
under  the  very  arches  of  the  house  of  death  —  that 
deep  paleness  of  the  cheek  of  the  young  son  reveal- 
ing how  the  agony  of  his  sorrow  masters  for  a  space 
the  vehemence  of  his  burning  resentment,  —  that 
awful  oath  of  revenge  against  the  house  of  his  future 
affianced  bride;  —  how  it  sweeps  on,  from  this  burial 
service  presided  over  by  doom,  through  those  unutter- 


314  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS  CHOATE.         [CHAP.  IX. 

able  agonies  of  two  hearts,  to  the  successive  and 
appalling  death-scenes  ;  how  every  incident  and  ap- 
pendage swells  the  dark  and  swift  tide  of  destiny ; 
how  highly  wrought  —  how  vivid  —  how  spontaneous 
in  metaphor,  is  every  scene  and  dialogue  ;  to  what 
fervor  and  exaltation  of  mind  —  to  what  keen  suscep- 
tibility of  emotion  —  to  how  towering  and  perturbed 
a  mood  of  imagination,  all  the  dramatis  personce  seem 
elevated  !  In  the  same  sense  in  which  the  CEdipus  or 
the  Agamemnon  is  a  tragic  poem,  so  is  this ;  and  the 
glorious  music  of  the  opera  is  scarcely  passionate  and 
mournful  enough  to  relieve  the  overburthened  and 
over-wrought  heart  and  imagination  of  the  reader. 

"  And  when  the  whole  romance  is  not  a  poem  in  its 
nature,  in  model,  as  Waverley,  the  Antiquary  and  the 
Astrologer  and  Kenilworth  and  Ivanhoe  are  not,  how 
does  the  element  of  poetry  yet  blend  and  revel  in  it ! 
In  what  other  prose  romances  of  any  literature,  in  how 
many  romances  in  verse,  do  you  find  pictures  of  scen- 
ery so  bold,  just,  and  free, —  such  judgment  in  choos- 
ing, and  enthusiasm  in  feeling,  and  energy  in  sketching, 
an  unequalled  landscape,  identified  by  its  own  incom- 
municable beauty  and  grandeur  ?  Where  else  but  in 
the  finest  of  tragedies  do  you  find  the  persons  of  the 
scene  brought  together  and  interacting  in  speech  and 
figure  so  full  of  life,  —  the  life  of  a  real  presence,  — 
the  life  flashing  from  the  eye,  trembling  in  the  tones 
of  voice,  shaking  the  strong  man's  frame,  speaking  in 
the  eloquent  face?  Who  has  sketched  the  single 
combat,  the  shock  of  ancient  and  modern  battle,  the 
assault,  the  repulse,  the  final  storm,  like  him?  Re- 
call that  contest  with  night,  ocean,  and  tempest,  in 
which  Sir  Arthur  and  Isabella  are  rescued  in  the  An- 


1856-1858.J  LECTURE   ON  THE   POETS.  315 

tiquary ;  and  contrast  that  other  also  in  the  An- 
tiquary, the  fisherman's  funeral,  —  the  bier  of  the 
young  man  drowned  —  the  passionate,  natural  sobs 
of  the  mother-: — the  sullen  and  fierce  grief  of  the 
father,  shaking  in  its  energy  the  bed  beneath  whose 
canopy  he  had  hidden  his  face  —  the  old  grandmother, 
linking  by  a  strange  tie  the  guilt,  the  punishment  of 
the  proud  house  of  Glenallan,  to  this  agony  of  humble 
life.  Over  what  other  prose  volumes  do  you  find 
strewn  broadcast  with  the  prodigality  of  a  happy  nar 
ture,  so  much  simile  and  metaphor,  —  the  vocabulary, 
—  the  pearls,  gems,  and  coral  of  the  language,  —  and 
the  thoughts  of  poetry  ?  —  What  would  you  think  to 
come,  in  Fielding  or  Smollett  or  Richardson  or  Defoe, 
on  such  a  passage  as  this  :  '  It  is  my  Leicester  !  It  is 
my  noble  earl !  Ij;  is  my  Dudley  !  Every  stroke  of 
his  horse's  hoof  sounds  like  a  note  of  lordly  music  ! ' 
Or  this:  'Major  Bridgenorth  glided  along  this  formal 
society  with  noiseless  step,  and  a  composed  severity  of 
manner  resembling  their  own.  He  paused  before  each 
in  succession,  and  apparently  communicated,  as  he 
passed,  the  transactions  of  the  evening,  and  the  cir- 
cumstances under  which  the  heir  of  Martindale  Castle 
was  now  a  guest  of  Moultrassie  Hall.  Each  seemed 
to  stir  at  his  brief  detail,  like  a  range  of  statues  in  an 
enchanted  hall,  starting  into  something  like  life  as  a 
talisman  is  applied  to  them  successively.' 

"  I  know,  too,  what  interest  and  what  value  their 
historical  element  gives  to  these  fictions.  Like  all 
this  class  of  fiction  in  all  literature,  their  theme  is 
domestic  life,  and  nature  under  the  aspects  of  do- 
mestic life.  But  his  is  domestic  life  on  which  there 
streams  the  mighty  influence  of  a  great  historical  con- 


316  MEMOIR   OF  RUFUS  CHOATE.         [CHAP.  IX. 

juncture.  That  interest  indescribable  which  attaches 
ever  to  a  people  and  a  time  over  which  dark  care,  an 
urgent  peril,  a  vast  apprehension  is  brooding  ;  a  crisis 
of  war,  of  revolution,  of  revolt,  —  that  interest  is 
spread  on  all  things,  the  minutest  incident,  —  the 
humblest  sufferer,  —  the  conversations  of  boors  on  the 
road  or  at  the  alehouse ;  every  thing  little  or  high  is 
illustrative  and  representative.  The  pukes  of  a  sub- 
lime national  movement  beat  through  the  universal 
human  nature  of  the  drama.  The  great  tides  of  his- 
torical and  public  existence  flow  there  and  ebb,  and 
all  things  rise  and  fall  on  those  resistless  forces.  The 
light  of  the  castle  stormed  and  on  fire  streams  in 
through  the  open  door  of  some  smallest  cottager;  and 
lovers  are  kept  asunder  by  a  war  of  succession  to 
thrones.  . 

"  To  one  of  his  detractors,  let  me  say  one  word. 

"  It  has  pleased  Mr.  Thomas  Carlyle  to  record  of 
these  novels,  — '  The  sick  heart  will  find  no  healing 
here,  the  darkly  struggling  heart  no  guidance,  the 
heroic  that  is  in  all  men  no  divine,  awakening  voice.' 
These  be  sonorous  words  assuredly.  In  one  sense  I 
am  afraid  that  is  true  of  any  and  all  mere  romantic 
literature.  As  disparagement  of  Scott  it  is  a  simple 
absurdity  of  injustice.  In  any  adequate  sense  of  these 
expressions,  Homer  and  Shakspeare  must  answer, 
*  These  are  not  mine  to  give.'  To  heal  that  sickness, 
to  pour  that  light  on  that  gloom,  to  awaken  that  sleep 
of  greatness  in  the  soul  in  the  highest  sense,  far  other 
provision  is  demanded,  and  is  given.  In  the  old,  old 
time,  —  Hebrew,  Pagan,  —  some  found  it  in  the  very 
voice  of  God ;  some  in  the  visits  of  the  angel ;  some 
in  a  pilgrimage  to  the  beautiful  Jerusalem  ;  some  in 


1855-1858.]  LECTURE   ON   THE    POETS.  317 

the  message  of  the  Prophet,  till  that  succession  had 
its  close ;  some  sought  it  rather  than  found  it,  like 
Socrates,  like  Plato,  like  Cicero,  like  Cato,  in  the 
thoughts  of  their  own  and  other  mighty  minds  turned 
to  the  direct  search  of  truth,  in  the  philosophy  of 
speculation,  in  the  philosophy  of  duty,  in  the  prac- 
tice of  public  life.  To  us  only,  and  at  last,  is  given 
the  true  light.  For  us  only  is  the  great  Physician 
provided.  In  our  ears,  in  theirs  whose  testimony  we 
assuredly  believe,  the  divine  awakening  voice  has 
been  articulately  and  first  spoken.  In  this  sense, 
what  he  says  would  be  true  of  Homer,  Shakspeare, 
Dante,  Milton  ;  but  rro  more  true  of  Scott  than  of 
Goethe  or  Schiller.  Neither  is,  or  gives,  religion  to 
the  soul,  if  it  is  that  of  which  he  speaks.  But  if  this 
is  not  his  meaning,  —  and  I  suppose  it  is  not,  —  if  he 
means  to  say  that  by  the  same  general  treatment, 
by  the  same  form  of  suffering  humanity,  by  which 
Homer,  Virgil,  Dante,  Shakspeare  heal  the  sick  heart, 
give  light  to  the  darkened  eye,  and  guidance  to  blun- 
dering feet,  and  kindle  the  heroic  in  man  to  life,  — 
if  he  means  to  say  that  as  they  have  done  it  he  has 
not  in  kind,  in  supreme  degree,  —  let  the  millions 
whose  hours  of  unrest,  anguish,  and  fear  he  has 
charmed  away,  to  the  darkness  of  whose  desponding 
he  has  given  light,  to  whose  sentiments  of  honor, 
duty,  courage,  truth,  manliness,  he  has  given  help  — 
let  them  gather  around  the  Capitol  and  answer  for 
themselves  and  him.  I  am  afraid  that  that  Delphic 
and  glorious  Madame  de  Stae'l  knew  sickness  of  the 
heart  in  a  sense  and  with  a  depth  too  true  only; 
and  she  had,  with  other  consolation,  the  fisherman's 
funeral  in  the  Antiquary  read  to  her  on  her  death- 


318  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS  CHOATE.         [CHAP.  IX. 

bed;  as  Charles  Fox  had  the  kindred  but  unequal 
sketches  of  Crabbe's  Village  read  on  his. 

"  And  so  of  this  complaint,  that  the  heroic  in  man 
finds  here  no  divine,  awakening  voice.  If  by  this 
heroic  in  man  he  means  what  —  assuming  religious 
traits  out  of  the  question  —  we  who  speak  the  tongue 
of  England  and  hold  the  ethics  of  Plato,  of  Cicero,  of 
Jeremy  Taylor  and  Edmund  Burke,  should  under- 
stand, —  religion  now  out  of  the  question,  —  that 
sense .  of  obligation,  pursuing  us  ever,  omnipresent 
like  the  Deity,  ever  proclaiming  that  the  duties  of 
life  are  more  than  life,  —  that  principle  of  honor  that 
feels  a  stain  like  a  wound,  —  that  courage  that  fears 
God  and  knows  no  other  fear,  that  dares  do  all  that 
may  become  a  man,  —  truth  on  the  lips  and  in  the 
inward  parts,  —  that  love  of  our  own  native  land, 
comprehensive  and  full  love,  the  absence  of  which 
makes  even  the  superb  art-world  of  Goethe  dreamy 
and  epicurean,  —  manliness,  equal  to  all  offices  of 
war  or  peace,  above  jealousy,  above  injustice,  —  if 
this  is  the  heroic,  and  if  by  the  divine  awakening 
voice  he  meant  that  artistic  and  literary  culture 
fitted  to  develop  and  train  this  quality,  that  voice  is 
Scott's. 

"  I  will  not  compare  him  with  Carlyle's  Goethe  or 
even  Schiller,  or  any  other  idol  on  the  Olympus  of 
his  worship ;  that  were  flippant  and  indecorous,  nor 
within  my  competence.  But  who  and  where,  in  any 
literature,  in  any  walk  of  genius,  has  sketched  a  char- 
acter, imagined  a  situation,  conceived  an  austerity  of 
glorified  suffering,  better  adapted  to  awaken  all  of 
the  heroic  in  man  or  woman,  that  it  is  fit  to  awaken, 
than  Rebecca  in  act  to  leap  from  the  dizzy  verge  of 


1855-1858.]  LECTURE    ON    THE   POETS.  319 

the  parapet  of  the  Castle  to  escape  the  Templar, 
or  awaiting  the  bitterness  of  death  in  the  list  of  Tera- 
plestowe  and  rejecting  the  championship  of  her  ad- 
mirer ?  —  or  than  Jeanie  Deans  refusing  an  untruth 
to  save  her  innocent  sister's  life  and  then  walking  to 
London  to  plead  for  her  before  the  Queen,  —  and  so 
pleading?  —  than  Macbriar  in  that  group  of  Cove- 
nanters in  Old  Mortality  in  presence  of  the  Privy 
Council,  confessing  for  himself,  whom  terror,  whom 
torture,  could  not  move  to  the  betrayal  of  another ; 
accepting  sentence  of  death,  after  anguish  unimagina- 
ble, his  face  radiant  with  joy  ;  a  trial  of  manhood  and 
trust,  a  sublimity  of  trial,  a  manifestation  of  the 
heroic  to  which  the  self-sacrifice  of  a  Leonidas  and  his 
three  hundred  was  but  a  wild  and  glad  revelry,  —  a 
inarch  to  the  '  Dorian  music  of  flutes  and  soft  record- 
ers,' —  a  crowning,  after  the  holiday  contention  of 
the  games,  with  all  of  glory  a  Greek  could  covet  or 
conceive. 

"  I  rode  in  the  August  of  1850,  with  a  friend  and 
kinsman,  now  dead,  from  Abbotsford  to  Dryburgh, 
from  the  home  to  the  grave  of  Walter  Scott.  We 
asked  the  driver  if  he  knew  on  which  side  of  the 
Tweed  the  funeral  procession,  a  mile  in  length,  went 
down.  He  did  not  know.  But  what  signified  it? 
Our  way  lay  along  its  south  bank.  On  our  right  rose 
the  three  peaks  of  the  cloven  summit  of  Eildon  ;  fair 
Melrose,  in  its  gray  ruin,  immortal  as  his  song ;  the 
Tweed,  whose  murmur  came  in  on  his  ear  when  he 
was  dying,  were  on  our  left ;  the  Scotland  of  the  Lay 
of  the  Last  Minstrel,  bathed  in  the  mild  harvest  sun- 
light, was  around  us  ;  and  when  we  came  within  that 
wide  inclosure  at  the  Abbey  of  Dryburgh,  in  which 


320  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS  CHOATE.          [CHAP.  IX. 

they  have  laid  him  down,  we  could  then  feel  how  truly 
that  deep  sob,  which  is  said  to  have  burst  in  that  mo- 
ment from  a  thousand  lips,  was  but  predictive  and 
symbolical  of  the  mourning  of  mute  Nature  for  her 
worshipper  ;  of  Scotland  for  the  crown  of  her  glory  ; 
of  the  millions  of  long  generations  for  their  com- 
panion and  their  benefactor." 

The  year  1856  was  a  year  of  political  excitement. 
The  Democratic  party  nominated  Mr.  Buchanan  for 
the  Presidency,  and  the  Republicans,  Col.  Fremont ; 
still  another  party,  composed  of  those  who  called 
themselves  "  Americans,"  had  nominated  Mr.  Fill- 
more.  Mr.  Choate  did  not  entirely  sympathize  with 
either  of  these  parties,  and  for  some  time  was  in 
doubt  what  position  to  take.  To  be  neutral  he 
thought  unbecoming,  when  great  interests  seemed 
to  be  at  stake,  nor  was  he  willing  to  throw  away 
his  influence  where  there  was  no  chance  of  success, 
especially  where  his  convictions  did  not  impel  him 
to  act.  He  meditated  long  and  anxiously,  taking 
counsel  of  none,  because  he  determined  to  act  inde- 
pendently. A  separation  from  old  friends,  even  tem- 
porarily, gave  him  real  sorrow,  yet  to  follow  any  party 
founded  on  geographical  principles,  or  which  would 
divide  the  States  by  a  geographical  line,  seemed  to 
him,  not  only  repugnant  to  the  counsels  of  Washing- 
ton and  the  fathers  of  the  Republic,  but  so  unstates- 
maniike  and  dangerous  that  he  could  not  regard  it 
with  favor.  A  letter  to  Mr.  Evarts,  of  New  York, 
who  had  recently  made  a  speech  in  favor  of  the  Re- 
publican party,  indicates  this  feeling. 


1855-1858.]     LETTER  TO  MAINE  WHIG  COMMITTEE.      321 


To  WM.  M.  EVARTS,  ESQ. 

"  DEAR  MR.  EVARTS,  —  I  thank  you  for  your  courtesy 
in  the  transmitting  of  the  speech.  I  had  read  it  before,  and 
for  that  matter,  there  has  been  nothing  else  in  my  papers 
since,  except  the  proceedings  in  the  matter  of  poor  Hoffman. 
Both  —  the  political  and  the  eulogistic  —  are  excellent.  To 
say  that  I  see  my  way  clear  to  act  with  you  were  premature. 
Blessings  are  bought  with  a  price.  We  may  pay  too  high 
for  good  sentiments  and  desirable  policy.  I  hate  some  of 
your  associates  and  recognize  no  necessity  at  all  for  a  Pres- 
idential campaign  on  platforms  less  broad  than  the  whole 
area.  .  .  . 

"  Most  truly  yours,         R.  CHOATE." 

The  first  distinct  intimation  that  he  gave  of  his 
probable  political  course  was  in  a  note  to  Mr.  Everett. 
It  was  little  more  than  a  conjecture,  however,  hardly 
a  declaration  of  a  fixed  purpose  ;  jet  he  was  not  timid 
in  declaring  his  opinions  when  fully  formed  and  the 
occasion  demanded  it,  and  in  his  letter  to  the  Whigs 
of  Maine,  dated  the  9th  of  August,  he  unhesitatingly 
affirmed  his  position.  This  letter  was  in  answer  to 
an  urgent  request  from  the  Whig  State  Committee 
to  address  the  people  at  a  mass  meeting  in  Waterville. 

To  E.  W.  FARLEY,  and  other  gentlemen,  of  the  Maine  Whig  State 
Central  Committee. 

"  BOSTON,  Aug.  9, 1856. 

"  GENTLEMEN,  —  Upon  my  return  last  evening,  after  a 
short  absence  from  the  city,  I  found  your  letter  of  the  30th 
ult.,  inviting  me  to  take  part  in  the  proceedings  of  the  Whigs 
of  Maine,  assembled  in  mass  meeting. 

"  I  appreciate  most  highly  the  honor  and  kindness  of  this 
invitation,  and  should  have  had  true  pleasure  in  accepting  it. 
The  Whigs  of  Maine  composed  at  all  times  so  important  a 
division  of  the  great  national  party,  which,  under  that  name, 
with  or  without  official  power,  as  a  responsible  administration, 
or  as  only  an  organized  opinion,  has  done  so  much  for  our 

21 


322  MEMOIR  OF  RUEUS  CHOATE.         [CHAP.  IX. 

country,  —  our  whole  country,  —  and  your  responsibilities  at 
this  moment  are  so  vast  and  peculiar,  that  I  acknowledge  an 
anxiety  to  see  —  not  wait  to  hear  —  with  what  noble  bearing 
you  meet  the  demands  of  the  time.  If  the  tried  legions,  to 
whom  it  is  committed  to  guard  the  frontier  of  the  Union, 
falter  now,  who,  anywhere,  can  be  trusted  ? 

"  My  engagements,  however,  and  the  necessity  or  expedi- 
ency of  abstaining  from  all  speech  requiring  much  effort,  will 
prevent  my  being  with  you.  And  yet,  invited  to  share  in 
your  counsels,  and  grateful  for  such  distinction,  I  cannot 
wholly  decline  to  declare  my  own  opinions  on  one  of  the 
duties  of  the  Whigs,  in  what  you  well  describe  as  '  the  present 
crisis  in  the  political  affairs  of  the  country.'  I  cannot  now, 
and  need  not,  pause  to  elaborate  or  defend  them.  What  I 
think,  and  what  I  have  decided  to  do,  permit  me  in  the  brief- 
est and  plainest  expression  to  tell  you. 

"  The  first  duty,  then,  of  Whigs,  not  merely  as  patriots 
and  as  citizens,  —  loving,  with  a  large  and  equal  love,  our 
whole  native  land,  —  but  as  Whigs,  and  because  we  are 
Whigs,  is  to  unite  with  some  organization  of  our  countrymen, 
to  defeat  and  dissolve  the  new  geographical  party,  calling 
itself  Republican.  This  is  our  first  duty.  It  would  more 
exactly  express  my  opinion  to  say  that  at  this  moment  it  is 
our  only  duty.  Certainly,  at  least,  it  comprehends  and  sus- 
pends all  others ;  and  in  my  judgment,  the  question  for  each 
and  every  one  of  us  is,  not  whether  this  candidate  or  that 
candidate  would  be  our  first  choice,  —  not  whether  there  is 
some  good  talk  in  the  worst  platform,  and  some  bad  talk  in 
the  best  platform,  —  not  whether  this  man's  ambition,  or  that 
man's  servility  or  boldness  or  fanaticism  or  violence,  is  respon- 
sible for  putting  the  wild  waters  in  this  uproar  ;  —  but  just 
this,  —  by  what  vote  can  I  do  most  to  prevent  the  madness 
of  the  times  from  working  its  maddest  act.  —  the  very  ecstasy 
of  its  madness,  —  the  permanent  formation  and  the  actual 
present  triumph  of  a  party  which  knows  one-half  of  America 
only  to  hate  and  dread  it,  —  from  whose  unconsecrated  and 
revolutionary  banner  fifteen  stars  are  erased  or  have  fallen, 
—  in  whose  national  anthem  the  old  and  endeared  airs  of  the 
Eutaw  Springs  and  the  King's  Mountain  and  Yorktown,  and 
those,  later,  of  New  Orleans  and  Buena  Vista  and  Chapulte- 
pec,  breathe  no  more.  To  this  duty,  to  this  question,  all 
others  seem  to  me  to  stand  for  the  present  postponed  and 
secondary. 


1855-1858.]    LETTER  TO  MAINE  WHIG  COMMITTEE.     323 

"  And  why  ?  Because,  according  to  our  creed,  it  is  only 
the  united  America  which  can  peacefully,  gradually,  safely, 
improve,  lift  up,  and  bless,  with  all  social  and  personal  and 
civil  blessings,  all  the  races  and  all  the  conditions  which  com- 
pose our  vast  and  various  family,  —  it  is  such  an  America, 
only,  whose  arm  can  guard  our  flag,  develop  our  resources, 
extend  our  trade,  and  fill  the  measure  of  our  glory  ;  and  be- 
cause, according  to  our  convictions,  the  triumph  of  such  a 
party  puts  the  Union  in  danger.  That  is  my  reason.  And 
for  you  and  for  me  and  for  all  of  us,  in  whose  regards  the 
Union  possesses  such  a  value,  and  to  whose  fears  it  seems 
menaced  by  such  a  danger,  it  is  reason  enough.  Believing 
the  noble  Ship  of  State  to  be  within  a  half  cable's  length  of 
a  lee  shore  of  rock,  in  a  gale  of  wind,  our  first  business  is  to 
put  her  about,  and  crowd  her  off  into  the  deep,  open  sea. 
That  done,  we  can  regulate  the  stowage  of  her  lower  tier  of 
powder,  and  select  her  cruising  ground,  and  bring  her  officers 
to  court-martial  at  our  leisure. 

"  If  there  are  any  in  Maine  —  and  among  the  Whigs  of 
Maine  I  hope  there  is  not  one  —  but  if  there  are  any,  in 
whose  hearts  strong  passions,  vaulting  ambition,  jealousy  of 
men  or  sections,  unreasoning  and  impatient  philanthropy,  or 
whatever  else  have  turned  to  hate  or  coldness  the  fraternal 
blood  and  quenched  the  spirit  of  national  life  at  its  source,  — 
with  whom  the  union  of  slave  States  and  free  States  under 
the  actual  Constitution  is  a  curse,  a  hindrance,  a  reproach, — 
with  those  of  course  our  view  of  our  duty  and  the  reason  of 
it,  are  a  stumbling-block  and  foolishness.  To  such  you  can 
have  nothing  to  say,  and  from  such  you  can  have  nothing  to 
hope.  But  if  there  are  those  again  who  love  the  Union  aa 
we  love  it,  and  prize  it  as  we  prize  it,  —  who  regard  it  as  we 
do,  not  merely  as  a  vast  instrumentality  for  the  protection  of 
our  commerce  and  navigation,  and  for  achieving  power,  emi- 
nence, and  name  among  the  sovereigns  of  the  earth,  but  as  a 
means  of  improving  the  material  lot,  and  elevating  the  moral 
and  mental  nature,  and  insuring  the  personal  happiness  of 
the  millions  of  many  distant  generations,  —  if  there  are 
those  who  think  thus  justly  of  it,  and  yet  hug  the  fatal 
delusion  that,  because  it  is  good,  it  is  necessarily  immortal, 
that  it  will  thrive  without  care,  that  any  thing  created  by  a 
man's  will  is  above  or  stronger  than  his  will,  that  because  the 
reason  and  virtues  of  our  age  of  reason  and  virtue  could 
build  it,  the  passions  and  stimulations  of  a  day  of  frenzy 


324  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS   CHOATE.         [CHAP.  IX. 

cannot  pull  it  down  ;  —  if  such  there  are  among  you,  to  them 
address  yourselves  with  all  the  earnestness  and  all  the  elo- 
quence of  men  who  feel  that  some  greater  interest  is  at 
stake,  and  some  mightier  cause  in  hearing,  than  ever  yet 
tongue  has  pleaded  or  trumpet  proclaimed.  If  such  minds 
and  hearts  are  reached,  all  is  safe.  But  how  specious  and 
how  manifold  are  the  sophisms  by  which  they  are  courted  ! 

"  They  hear,  and  they  read  much  ridicule  of  those  who 
fear  that  a  geographical  party  does  endanger  the  Union. 
But  can  they  forget  that  our  greatest,  wisest,  and  most 
hopeful  statesmen  have  always  felt,  and  have  all,  in  one  form 
or  another,  left  on  record  their  own  fear  of  such  a  party  ? 
The  judgments  of  Washington,  Madison,  Clay,  Webster,  on 
the  dangers  of  the  American  Union  —  are  they  worth  nothing 
to  a  conscientious  love  of  it?  What  they  dreaded  as  a 
remote  and  improbable  contingency  —  that  against  which 
they  cautioned,  as  they  thought,  distant  generations  —  that 
which  they  were  so  happy  as  to  die  without  seeing  —  is  upon 
us.  And  yet  some  men  would  have  us  go  on  laughing  and 
singing,  like  the  traveller  in  the  satire,  with  his  pockets 
empty,  at  a  present  peril,  the  mere  apprehension  of  which, 
as  a  distant  and  bare  possibility,  could  sadden  the  heart  of 
the  Father  of  his  Country,  and  dictate  the  grave  and  grand 
warning  of  the  Farewell  Address. 

"  They  hear  men  say  that  such  a  party  ought  not  to  en- 
danger the  Union  ;  that,  although  it  happened  to  be  formed 
within  one  geographical  section,  and  confined  exclusively  to 
it,  —  although  its  end  and  aim  is  to  rally  that  section  against 
the  other  on  a  question  of  morals,  policy,  aud  feeling,  on 
which  the  two  differ  eternally  and  unappeasedly,  although, 
from  the  nature  of  its  origin  and 4  objects,  no  man  in  the 
section  outside  can  possibly  join  it,  or  accept  office  under  it, 
without  infamy  at  home,  —  although,  therefore,  it  is  a  stupen- 
dous organization,  practically  to  take  power  and  honor,  and 
a  full  share  of  the  government,  from  our  whole  family  of 
States,  and  bestow  them,  substantially,  all  upon  the  antag- 
onist family,  —  although  the  doctrines  of  human  rights, 
which  it  gathers  out  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence  — 
that  passionate  and  eloquent  manifesto  of  a  revolutionary 
war  —  and  adopts  as  its  fundamental  ideas,  announce  to  any 
Southern  apprehension  a  crusade  of  the  government  against 
slavery,  far  without  and  beyond  Kansas,  —  although  the 
spirit  and  tendency  of  its  electioneering  appeals,  as  a  whole, 


185&-1858.]    LETTER  TO  MAINE  WHIG  COMMITTEE.      325 

in  prose  and  verse,  the  leading  articles  of  its  papers,  and  the 
speeches  of  its  orators,  are  to  excite  contempt  and  hate,  or 
fear,  of  one  entire  geographical  section,  and  hate  or  dread 
or  contempt  is  the  natural  impression  it  all  leaves  on  the 
Northern  mind  and  heart ;  yet  that  nobody  anywhere  ought 
to  be  angry,  or  ought  to  be  frightened ;  that  the  majority 
must  govern,  and  that  the  North  is  a  majority  ;  that  it  is  ten 
to  one  nothing  will  happen ;  that,  if  worst  comes  to  worst, 
the  South  knows  it  is  wholly  to  blame,  and  needs  the  Union 
more  than  we  do,  and  will  be  quiet  accordingly. 

"  But  do  they  who  hold  this  language  forget  that  the 
question  is  not  what  ought  to  endanger  the  Union,  but  what 
will  do  it  ?  Is  it  man  as  he  ought  to  be,  or  man  as  he  is, 
that  we  must  live  with  or  live  alone  ?  In  appreciating  the 
influences  which  may  disturb  a  political  system,  and  especially 
one  like  ours,  do  you  make  no  allowance  for  passions,  for 
pride,  for  infirmity,  for  the  burning  sense  of  even  imaginary 
wrong  ?  Do  you  assume  that  all  men,  or  all  masses  of  men 
in  all  sections,  uniformly  obey  reason ;  and  uniformly  wisely 
see  and  calmly  seek  their  true  interests  ?  Where  on  earth 
is  such  a  fool's  Paradise  as  that  to  be  found  ?  Conceding  to 
the  people  of  the  fifteen  States  the  ordinary  and  average 
human  nature,  its  good  and  its  evil,  its  weakness  and  its 
strength,  I,  for  one,  dare  not  say  that  the  triumph  of  such  a 
party  ought  not  to  be  expected  naturally  and  probably  to 
disunite  the  States.  With  my  undoubting  convictions,  I  know 
that  it  would  be  folly  and  immorality  in  men  to  wish  it. 
Certainly  there  are  in  all  sections  and  in  all  States  those  who 
love  the  Union,  under  the  actual  Constitution,  as  Washington 
did,  as  Jay,  Hamilton,  and  Madison  did ;  as  Jackson,  as  Clay, 
as  Webster  loved  it.  Such  even  is  the  hereditary  and  the 
habitual  sentiment  of  the  general  American  heart.  But  he 
has  read  life  and  books  to  little  purpose  who  has  not  learned 
that  '  bosom  friendships '  may  be  '  to  resentment  soured,'  and 
that  no  hatred  is  so  keen,  deep,  and  precious  as  that. 

'  And  to  be  wroth  with  one  we  love 
Doth  work  like  madness  in  the  brain.' 

He  has  read  the  book  of  our  history  to  still  less  purpose,  who 
has  not  learned  that  the  friendships  of  these  States,  sisters 
but  rivals,  sovereigns  each,  with  a  public  life,  and  a  body  of 
interests,  and  sources  of  honor  and  shame  of  its  own  and 
within  itself,  distributed  into  two  great  opposing  groups,  are 


MEMOIR  OF   RUFUS   CHOATE.         [CHAP.  IX. 

of  all  human  ties  most  exposed  to  such  rupture  and  such 
transformation. 

"  I  have  not  time  in  these  hasty  lines,  and  there  is  no  need, 
to  speculate  on  the  details  of  the  modes  in  which  the  triumph 
of  this  party  would  do  its  work  of  evil.  Its  mere  struggle 
to  obtain  the  government,  as  that  struggle  is  conducted,  is 
mischievous  to  an  extent  incalculable.  That  thousands  of 
the  good  men  who  have  joined  it  deplore  this  is  certain,  but 
that  does  not  mend  the  matter.  I  appeal  to  the  conscience 
and  honor  of  my  country  that  if  it  were  the  aim  of  a  great 
party,  by  every  species  of  access  to  the  popular  mind,  —  by 
eloquence,  by  argument,  by  taunt,  by  sarcasm,  by  recrimination, 
by  appeals  to  pride,  shame,  and  natural  right,  —  to  prepare 
the  nation  for  a  struggle  with  Spain  or  England  or  Austria, 
it  could  not  do  its  business  more  thoroughly.  Many  persons, 
many  speakers,  —  many,  very  many,  set  a  higher  and  wiser 
example ;  but  the  work  is  doing. 

"  If  it  accomplishes  its  objects  and  gives  the  government 
to  the  North,  I  turn  my  eyes  from  the  consequences.  To 
the  fifteen  States  of  the  South  that  government  will  appear 
an  alien  government.  It  will  appear  worse.  It  will  appear 
a  hostile  government.  It  will  represent  to  their  eye  a  vast 
region  of  States  organized  upon  anti-slavery,  flushed  by 
triumph,  cheered  onward  by  the  voices  of  the  pulpit,  tribune, 
and  press ;  its  mission  to  inaugurate  freedom  and  put  down 
the  oligarchy ;  its  constitution  the  glittering  and  sounding 
generalities  of  natural  right  which  make  up  the  Declaration 
of  Independence.  And  then  and  thus  is  the  beginning  of 
the  end. 

"  If  a  necessity  could  be  made  out  for  such  a  party  we 
might  submit  to  it  as  to  other  unavoidable  evil,  and  other 
certain  danger.  But  where  do  they  find  that?  Where  do 
they  pretend  to  find  it  ?  Is  it  to  keep  slavery  out  of  the 
territories  ?  There  is  not  one  but  Kansas  in  which  slavery 
is  possible.  No  man  fears,  no  man  hopes,  for  slavery  in 
Utah,  New  Mexico,  Washington,  or  Minnesota.  A  national 
party  to  give  them  freedom  is  about  as  needful  and  about  as 
feasible  as  a  national  party  to  keep  Maine  for  freedom.  And 
Kansas !  Let  that  abused  and  profaned  soil  have  calm  within 
its  borders  ;  deliver  it  over  to  the  natural  law  of  peaceful  and 
spontaneous  immigration ;  take  off  the  ruffian  hands ;  strike 
down  the  rifle  and  the  bowie-knife ;  guard  its  strenuous 
infancy  and  youth  till  it  comes  of  age  to  choose  for  itself, — 


1855-1858.]     LETTER  TO  MAINE  WHIG  COMMITTEE.      327 

and  it  will  choose  freedom  for  itself,  and  it  will  have  for  ever 
what  it  chooses. 

"  When  this  policy,  so  easy,  simple,  and  just,  is  tried  and 
fails,  it  will  be  time  enough  to  resort  to  revolution.  It  is  in 
part  because  the  duty  of  protection  to  the  local  settler  was 
not  performed,  that  the  Democratic  party  has  already  by  the 
action  of  its  great  representative  Convention  resolved  to  put 
out  of  office  its  own  administration.  That  lesson  will  not 
and  must  not  be  lost  on'anybody.  The  country  demands 
that  Congress,  before  it  adjourns,  give  that  territory  peace. 
If  it  do,  time  will  inevitably  give  it  freedom. 

"  I  have  hastily  and  imperfectly  expressed  my  opinion 
through  the  unsatisfactory  forms  of  a  letter,  as  to  the  imme- 
diate duty  of  Whigs.  We  are  to  do  what  we  can  to  defeat 
and  disband  the  geographical  party.  But  by  what  specific 
action  we  can  most  effectually  contribute  to  such  a  result  is 
a  question  of  more  difficulty.  It  seems  now  to  be  settled  that 
we  present  no  candidate  of  our  own.  If  we  vote  at  all,  then, 
we  vote  for  the  nominees  of  the  American,  or  the  nominees  of 
the  Democratic  party.  As  between  them  I  shall  not  venture 
to  counsel  the  Whigs  of  Maine,  but  I  deem  it  due  to  frankness 
and  honor  to  say,  that  while  I  entertain  a  high  appreciation 
of  the  character  and  ability  of  Mr.  Fillmore,  I  do  not 
sympathize  in  any  degree  with  the  objects  and  creed  of  the 
particular  party  that  nominated  him,  and  do  not  approve 
of  their  organization  and  their  tactics.  Practically,  too,  the 
contest  in  my  judgment  is  between  Mr.  Buchanan  and  Col. 
Fremont.  In  these  circumstances,  I  vote  for  Mr.  Buchanan. 
He  has  large  experience  in  public  affairs ;  his  commanding 
capacity  is  universally  acknowledged ;  his  life  is  without  a 
stain.  I  am  constrained  to  add  that  he  seems  at  this  moment, 
by  the  concurrence  of  circumstances,  more  completely  than 
any  other,  to  represent  that  sentiment  of  nationality,  tolerant, 
warm,  and  comprehensive,  -•-  without  which,  without  increase 
of  which,  America  is  no  longer  America ;  and  to  possess  the 
power  and  1  trust  the  disposition  to  restore  and  keep  that 
peace,  within  our  borders,  and  without,  for  which  our  hearts 
all  yearn,  which  all  our  interests  demand,  through  which  and 
by  which  alone  we  may  hope  to  grow  to  the  true  greatness 
of  nations.  "  Very  respectfully, 

"  Your  fellow-citizen, 

"  RUFUS  CHOATE." 


328  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS  CHOATE.         [CHAP.  IX. 

This  letter  was  no  sooner  published  than  solicita- 
tions came,  almost  without  number,  to  take  part  in 
the  political  campaign.  Committees  from  New  York 
and  Philadelphia  urged  him  with  an  importunity 
which  it  was  very  difficult  to  resist.  He  determined 
at  last  to  make  one  speech,  and  but  one.  He  chose 
the  place,  Lowell,  —  an  important  manufacturing  city 
in  Middlesex  County,  the  county  which  holds  Bunker 
Hill  and  Lexington.  An  immense  crowd  assembled 
to  hear  him  on  the  28th  of  October.  It  was  an 
unwonted  and  hard  thing  for  him  to  leave,  even  for 
a  time,  those  with  whom  he  had  always  been  politi- 
cally associated,  and  join  those  whom  he  had  always 
opposed.  If  ever  one  were  controlled  by  a  high  sense 
of  public  duty,  he  certainly  was  in  that  difficult  step. 
He  sought  neither  honor,  nor  office,  nor  emolument ; 
nothing  but  the  greater  safety  and  welfare  of  the 
country  could  repay  him.  There  was  a  tone  of  dep- 
recation in  some  parts  of  the  speech  which  marked 
his  deep  feeling.  "  Certainly,"  he  said,  "  somewhat 
there  is  in  the  position  of  all  of  us  a  little  trying. 
Ties  of  years  which  knit  some  of  us  together  are 
broken.  Cold  regards  are  turned  on  us,  and  bitter 
language,  and  slander  cruel  as  the  grave,  is  ours. 

'  I  cannot  but  remember  such  things  were, 
That  were  most  precious  to  me.' 

You  have  decided,  Fellow-Whigs,  that  you  can  best 
contribute  to  the  grand  end  we  all  seek,  by  a  vote 
for  Mr.  Fillmore.  I,  a  Whig  all  my  life,  a  Whig  in 
all  things,  and  as  regards  all  other  names,  a  Whig 
to-day,  have  thought  I  could  discharge  my  duty 
most  effectually  by  voting  for  Mr.  Buchanan  and 
Mr.  Breckinridge ;  and  I  shall  do  it.  The  justice  I 


1855-1858.]  ADDRESS    AT   LOWELL.  329 

am  but  too  happy  in  rendering  you,  will  you  deny  to 
me  ?  In  doing  this  I  neither  join  the  Democratic 
party,  nor  retract  any  opinion  on  the  details  of  its 
policy,  nor  acquit  it  of  its  share  of  blame  in  bringing 
on  the  agitations  of  the  hour.  .  .  .  There  never  was 
an  election  contest  that,  in  denouncing  the  particulars 
of  its  policy,  I  did  not  admit  that  the  characteristic 
of  the  Democratic  party  was  this,  that  it  had  burned 
ever  with  the  great  master-passion  this  hour  demands, 
a  youthful,  vehement,  exultant,  and  progressive  na- 
tionality. Through  some  errors,  into  some  perils,  it 
has  been  led  by  it ;  it  may  be  so  again  ;  we  may 
require  to  temper  and  restrain  it ;  but  to-day  we  need 
it  all,  we  need  it  all !  the  hopes,  the  boasts,  the  pride, 
the  universal  tolerance,  the  gay  and  festive  defiance 
of  foreign  dictation,  the  flag,  the  music,  all  the  emo- 
tions, all  the  traits,  all  the  energies,  that  have  won 
their  victories  of  war,  and  their  miracles  of  national 
advancement,  —  the  country  needs  them  all  now,  to 
win  a  victory  of  peace.  That  done,  I  will  pass  again, 
happy  and  content,  into  that  minority  of  conservatism 
in  which  I  have  passed  my  life." 

The  meeting  had  assembled  in  the  largest  hall  in 
the  city,  which  was  densely  packed.  It  was  estimated 
that  from  four  to  five  thousand  persons  were  present. 
The  committee  of  arrangements,  with  the  orator,  could 
with  great  difficulty  force  their  way  to  the  platform. 
The  meeting  was  soon  organized,  and  the  president 
had  hardly  begun  to  make  a  preliminary  address,  when 
a  dull,  heavy  sound  like  a  distant  cannon  was  heard, 
and  the  floor  evidently  yielded.  A  general  fright 
seemed  to  pervade  the  audience,  which  was  assuaged 
only  by  assurances  of  safety,  and  that  an  examination 


330  MEMOIR   OF  RtHFUS   CHOATE.          [CHAP.  IX. 

of  the  supports  of  the  building  should  at  once  be  made 
by  an  experienced  architect.  The  agitation  having 
subsided,  Mr.  Choate  rose  and  was  hailed  with  a 
storm  of  applause,  such  as  even  he  had  rarely  heard 
before.  He  proceeded  for  nearly  half  an  hour,  when 
again  that  ominous  sound  was  heard,  and  the  floor 
was  felt  sinking  as  before.  Mr.  Choate  paused,  and 
the  fear  of  the  crowd  was  partially  quieted  a  second 
time  by  an  assurance  of  an  immediate  inspection  of 
the  building,  and  if  it  should  not  be  found  safe,  an 
adjournment  to  some  other  place.  The  architect  who 
first  went  to  examine  the  supports  had  not  come  back. 
General  Butler,  who  was  presiding,  said  that  he  would 
go  and  ascertain  the  condition  of  things,  and  return 
and  report.  He  went,  and  to  his  horror  found  that 
several  of  the  rods  by  which  the  floor  was  sustained 
had  drawn  through  the  timbers,  that  the  ceiling  below 
was  opening,  and  that  the  slightest  movement  or 
demonstration  of  applause  would  be  likely  to  bring 
the  floor,  the  roof,  and  probably  the  walls,  to  the 
ground,  with  a  destruction  of  life  too  awful  to  think 
of.  Comprehending  all  the  peril,  he  forced  his  way 
in  again  through  the  crowd,  till  he  reached  the  plat- 
form, and  then  calmly  addressing  the  audience  told 
them  that  though  there  might  be  no  immediate  danger, 
as  they  had  been  interrupted  twice  and  some  were 
timid,  it  would  be  best  quietly  and  without  haste  to 
leave  the  hall.  '  This  is  the  place  of  greatest  danger,' 
he  said, '  and  I  shall  stand  here  till  all  have  gone  out.' 
The  hall  was  at  once  cleared,  those  on  the  platform 
going  last ;  and  it  is  said  that  as  they  were  walking 
out  the  floor  again  sprung  for  an  inch  or  two.  Not 
till  all  were  safe,  did  they  understand  the  imminent 


1866-1858.]      LETTEK  TO  JOHN  CARROLL  WALSH.         331 

peril  in  which  they  had  been ;  how  near  to  a  catas- 
trophe, to  which  that  of  the  Pemberton  Mill  might 
have  been  a  mercy.  The  crowd  soon  forgot  the 
danger,  and  were  so  eager  for  the  continuance  of  the 
speech,  that  Mr.  Choate,  who  had  retired  to  the  hotel, 
and  was  suffering  from  an  incipient  illness,  addressed 
the  assembled  masses  for  some  time  from  a  platform 
hastily  erected  in  front  of  one  of  the  windows. 

It  was  natural  that  his  determination  to  vote  for 
Mr.  Buchanan  should  be  regarded  with  sorrow  by 
those  with  whom  he  had  always  been  associated,  and 
perhaps  not  very  surprising  that  he  should  have  re- 
ceived anonymous  letters  filled  with  abuse  and  threats, 
some  of  them  frightful  in  their  malignity.  After  the 
election,  it  was  intimated  to  him,  that  any  honorable 
position  under  the  government,  that  he  might  desire, 
would  be  at  his  disposal.  But  he  was  determined  to 
receive  nothing,  nor  allow  the  remotest  suspicion  to 
attach  to  his  motives.  Some  doubted  the  necessity  or 
the  wisdom  of  his  course ;  but  none  who  knew  him 
distrusted  the  depth  and  sincerity  of  his  convictions, 
or  the  immaculate  purity  of  his  patriotism.  Misjudg- 
ment  and  censure  he  expected  to  receive,  but  charges 
of  mercenary  or  malignant  motives  he  could  not  over- 
look. Such  having  been  brought  to  his  notice  as 
made  in  Maryland,  he  replied  to  his  informant  by  the 
following  letter :  — 

To  JOHN  CARROLL  WALSH,  Harford  Co.,  Maryland. 

"  BOSTON,  Sept.  15, 1856. 

"  DEAR  SIR,  —  Your  letter  informing  me  that  Mr.  Davis 
asserted  in  a  public  speech  that  the  secret  of  my  opposition  to 
Mr.  Fillmore  was  disappointment,  created  by  not  receiving 
from  him  an  office  which  I  sought  and  desired,  was  received  a 
little  out  of  time.  I  thank  you  for  affording  me  an  opportu- 


332  MEMOIR   OF  RUFUS   CHOATE.        [CHAP.  IX. 

nity  to  answer,  at  the  first  moment  of  hearing  it,  a  statement 
so  groundless  and  so  unjust.  There  is  not  a  particle  of  truth 
in  it,  nor  is  there  any  thing  to  color  or  to  suggest  his  inform- 
ant's falsehood.  I  authorize  and  request  you,  if  you  attach 
any  importance  to  the  matter,  to  give  it  the  most  absolute  and 
comprehensive  denial.  I  never  sought  an  office  from  Mr. 
Fillmore  directly  or  indirectly,  and  never  requested  or  author- 
ized any  other  person  to  do  so  for  me,  and  never  believed  for 
a  moment,  or  suspected,  and  do  not  now  believe  or  suspect, 
that  any  one  has  done  so,  or  has  even  mentioned  my  name  to 
him  in  connection  with  an  office.  Mr.  Fillmore  never  had  a 
place  in  his  gift  which  I  desired,  or  which  I  could  have 
afforded  to  accept,  even  if  I  had  thought  myself  competent  to 
fill  it,  or  for  which  I  could,  under  any  circumstances,  have 
exchanged  the  indispensable  labor  of  my  profession.  Per- 
sonal complaint  of  Mr.  Fillmore  I  have  not  the  slightest 
reason  to  make ;  and  he  who  thinks  it  worth  his  while  to 
conjecture  why  I  shall  not  vote  for  him,  must  accept  from  me, 
or  fabricate  for  himself,  a  different  explanation. 

"  With  great  regard,  your  servant  and  fellow-citizen, 

"  RUFUS  CHOATE." 

The  key  to  Mr.  Choate's  public  life,  especially  his 
later  life,  may  be  found  in  two  grand  motives :  the 
first,  his  strong  American  feeling ;  the  second,  his 
love  of  the  Union.  The  former  led  him  to  sustain  the 
country,  its  institutions,  and  public  policy,  as  distin- 
guished from  those  of  the  Old  World.  The  latter 
made  him  as  careful  of  the  rights,  as  respectful  to  the 
feelings,  the  sentiments,  the  habits,  of  the  South  as  of 
the  North,  of  the  West  as  of  the  East.  He  felt  that 
sufficient  time  had  not  yet  elapsed  thoroughly  to  prove 
the  power  and  virtues  of  the  Republic,  or  suggest  an 
adequate  remedy  for  its  defects.  He  felt  that  to  per- 
petuate a  government  strong  but  liberal  —  considerate 
of  every  interest  and  oppressive  of  none  —  requires 
great  breadth  and  intensity  of  patriotism,  much  for- 
bearance of  sectional  ignorance  and  prejudice,  a  con- 
ciliatory and  just  spirit,  a  large  prudence,  and  a  liberal 


1855-1858.]  HIS   LIBRARY.  333 

regard  to  wants  and  interests  as  diverse  as  the  races 
which  march  under  the  one  national  banner,  and  pro- 
fess allegiance  to  a  common  government,  or  the  pro- 
ductions and  pursuits  of  our  various  climate  and  soil. 
The  State  he  loved,  as  one  would  love  a  father.  The 
faults  of  the  State  he  would  not  make  the  ground  of 
party  exultation,  or  parade  them  for  universal,  indis- 
criminate, and  barren  censure,  but  would  rather  shun, 
and  if  possible  cure,  or  at  least  cover  with  a  filial 
sorrow,  —  dictitans,  domestica  mala  tristitia  operienda. 
He  shared  largely  the  fears  of  the  wisest  and  most 
far-sighted  statesmen,  but  still  trusted  that  under  a 
magnanimous  public  policy,  time  would  more  com- 
pletely consolidate  the  races  and  States,  evils  would 
be  gradually  corrected,  and  the  spirit  of  nationality 
—  deeply  imbedded  in  the  affections  and  interests  — 
would  rise  supreme  over  every  local  ambition  or 
sectional  scheme. 

Mr.  Choate's  position  was  now  such  as  any  one  might 
envy.  As  a  statesman,  his  ideas  and  policy  had  noth- 
ing narrow  or  sectional.  They  embraced  the  welfare 
of  the  whole  country,  and  of  every  part  of  it.  He  was 
identified  with  whatever  in  patriotism  was  most  gener- 
ous and  unselfish.  In  his  profession  he  had  won  the 
love,  as  well  as  the  admiration,  of  his  brethren.  He 
stood  at  the  head  of  the  New  England  Bar ;  nor  was 
there  in  the  country  an  advocate  whose  well-earned 
reputation  surpassed  his.  Too  liberal  to  acquire  an 
ample  fortune,  he  had,  nevertheless,  secured  a  com- 
petence. His  family  was  still  almost  unbroken.  Two 
of  his  daughters  were  married,1  and  lived  very  near 

1  His  eldest  daughter  to  Joseph  M.  Bell,  Esq. ;  and  his  youngest 
to  Edward  Ellerton  Pratt,  Esq. 


334  MEMOIR  OF   RUFUS   CHOATE.         [CHAP.  IX. 

him.  His  residence  and  his  library  had  been  every 
year  growing  more  and  more  to  his  mind.  His  library 
had  always  been  an  object  of  special  interest.  On 
moving  into  his  house  in  Winthrop  Place,  it  filled  a 
front  chamber  directly  over  the  parlor.  Soon  over- 
flowing, it  swept  away  the  partition  between  that  and 
a  small  room  over  the  front  entry.  Then,  accumu- 
lating still  more  rapidly,  it  burst  all  barriers  and 
filled  the  whole  second  story.  A  friend  visiting  him 
one  clay,  asked  how  he  contrived  to  gain  from  Mrs. 
Choate  so  large  a  part  of  the  house.  "  Oh,"  said  he, 
in  a  most  delightfully  jocular  tone,  "by  fighting  for 
it."  It  was,  indeed,  a  charming  retreat.  Every  wall, 
in  all  the  irregularities  of  the  room,  filled  with  crowded 
bookcases,  with  here  and  there  choice  engravings  and 
pictures  in  unoccupied  places,  or  on  frames  arranged 
expressly  to  hold  them  ;  with  tables,  desks,  luxurious 
chairs,  and  lounges,  —  all  for  use  and  nothing  for 
show,  though  elegant,  —  all  warm,  familiar,  and  in- 
viting. His  library  was  rich  in  English  literature  and 
learning  in  all  its  branches,  and  in  choice  editions  of 
the  classics ;  well,  though  not  amply,  provided  with 
modern  foreign  literature ;  and  thoroughly  stocked 
with  all  the  apparatus  of  dictionaries,  gazetteers,  and 
maps,  which  a  scholar  constantly  needs.  It  numbered, 
at  the  time  of  his  death,  about  seven  thousand  vol- 
umes. His  law  library,  it  may  be  here  stated,  con- 
sisted of  about  three  thousand  volumes,  and,  I  am 
informed  by  those  familiar  with  it,  was  one  of  the 
best  professional  libraries  in  the  State. 

The  next  two  years  of  Mr.  Choate's  life  were  diver- 
sified by  little  besides  the  ordinary  varieties  of  his  pro- 
fession. In  February,  1857,  he  delivered  before  the 


1855-1858.]  DEFENCE   OF   MRS.   DALTON.  335 

Mechanic  Apprentices'  Library  Association  a  lecture 
on  the  "  Eloquence  of  Revolutionary  Periods,"  in 
which  he  dwelt  specially  on  Demosthenes  and  Cicero. 
It  is  full  of  high  thoughts,  and  raises  one  by  its  beauty 
and  magnanimity.  Its  eloquent  defence  of  Cicero 
was  harshly  criticised  —  one  hardly  knows  why  —  by 
some  who  accept  the  later  theories  of  Cicero's  life  ; 
but  was  received  with  rare  satisfaction  by  the  lovers 
of  the  patriotic  Roman,  —  nearly  the  most  eloquent  of 
the  Ancients. 

In  May  of  the  same  year,  he  made  his  powerful  and 
successful  defence  of  Mrs.  Dalton.  This  case  excited 
great  interest  from  the  respectability  of  the  parties, 
from  the  circumstances  which  preceded  the  trial,  as 
well  as  from  the  great  ability  of  the  advocates  on  both 
sides.1  Its  details,  however,  true  or  false,  were  such 
as  almost  of  necessity  to  exclude  it,  and  the  argument 
based  upon  it,  from  full  publication.  Shortly  after  his 
marriage,  nearly  two  years  before,  Mr.  Dalton  discov- 
ered what  he  thought  an  improper  intimacy  between 
his  wife  and  a  young  man  by  the  name  of  Sumner. 
As  a  result  of  this,  Sumner  was  induced  to  go  to  the 
house  of  Mr.  Coburn  (who  had  married  a  sister  of 
Mrs.  Dalton),  in  Shawmut  Avenue,  where  he  was 
confronted  with  Mrs.  Dalton,  was  attacked  by  Dalton 
and  Coburn,  beaten,  and  driven  from  the  premises. 
He  went  home  to  Milton,  where  soon  after  he  was 
taken  sick  and  died.  The  story  found  its  way  into 
the  newspapers,  with  the  usual  exaggerations  and  in- 
accuracies. The  death  of  Sumner  increased  the 
popular  excitement,  and  Dalton  was  arrested  and 
imprisoned  on  a  charge  of  murder.  After  lying  in 

1  E.  H.  Dana,  Jr.,  was  Mr.  Dalton's  counsel. 


336  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS  CHOATE.         [CHAP.  IX. 

jail  more  than  a  month,  the  grand  jury,  on  examining 
the  case,  indicted  him  for  manslaughter,  and  for 
assault  and  battery.  On  the  former  charge  he  was 
acquitted;  to  the  latter  he  pleaded  guilty,  and  was 
condemned  to  an  imprisonment  of  five  months.  Soon 
after  going  to  jail  on  this  sentence,  he  filed  his  libel 
for  a  divorce.  To  hear  such  a  cause  in  public  before 
a  jury,  was  a  doubtful  experiment,  tried  then  for  the 
first  time.  Day  after  day,  for  nearly  three  weeks,  the 
court-room  had  been  crowded  by  an  eager  and  curious 
multitude,  watching  the  parties  who  sat  within  the 
bar  by  the  side  of  their  respective  counsel ;  watching 
every  movement  of  the  eminent  advocates  as  they 
would  the  players  of  a  great  game,  and  intently 
listening  to  the  revelations  of  the  evidence.  Day  by 
day  the  larger  audience  and  the  public  had  been  both 
stimulated  and  sickened  by  the  startling,  contradic- 
tory, scandalous,  and  disgusting  details  spread  wide  in 
the  newspapers.  All  were  waiting  with  curiosity  and 
interest,  and  some  with  intense  anxiety,  for  the  result 
of  the  trial,  which  at  length  drew  to  a  close.  The 
doors  were  no  sooner  opened  on  the  morning  when 
the  argument  was  expected,  than  the  court-room  was 
crowded  to  its  utmost  capacity.  While  waiting  for 
the  judge  to  take  his  seat,  much  merriment  was 
caused  by  a  grave  announcement  from  the  Sheriff 
that  the  second  jury,  which  had  been  summoned  in 
expectation  that  the  trial  would  be  ended,  "might 
have  leave  to  withdraw."  As  this  was  at  the  moment 
when  expectation  was  at  the  highest,  and  chairs  were 
at  a  premium,  and  whoever  had  a  standing-place  felt 
that  he  was  a  fortunate  man,  the  effect  may  be  easily 
imagined. 


1855-1858-1  DEFENCE    OF   MRS.   DALTON.  337 

Mr.  Choate  was  punctually  in  his  place  at  the  ap- 
pointed time  ;  behind  and  near  him  sat  his  young 
client,  attended  by  her  mother  and  sister.  Not  far 
distant,  and  close  to  his  counsel,  his  eye  turned  often 
to  the  great  advocate,  but  never  to  her,  was  a  fair  and 
pleasant-looking  young  man,  —  the  husband  suing  for 
a  divorce  from  a  wife  charged  with  the  most  serious 
criminality.  Immediately  on  the  opening  of  the 
court,  Mr.  Choate  rose,  and,  after  briefly  referring  to 
a  case  or  two  in  a  law-book,  commenced  in  a  grave 
and  quiet  manner  by  congratulating  the  jury  on  ap- 
proaching, at  least,  the  close  of  a  duty  so  severe 
and  so  painful  to  all.  He  then  in  a  few  sentences, 
with  a  felicity  which  has  seldom  been  equalled,  pro- 
fessed to  be  really  pleading  for  the  interests  of  both 
parties. 

"  It  very  rarely  happens,  indeed,  gentlemen,  in  the 
trial  of  a  civil  controversy,  that  both  parties  have  an 
equal,  or,  however,  a  vast  interest,  that  one  of  them  — 
in  this  case  the  defendant  —  should  be  clearly  proved 
to  be  entitled  to  your  verdict.  Unusual  as  it  is,  such 
is  now  the  view  of  the  case  that  I  take  ;  such  a  one  is 
the  trial  now  before  you.  To  both  of  these  parties  it 
is  of  supreme  importance,  in  the  view  that  I  take  of  it, 
that  you  should  find  this  young  wife,  erring,  indis- 
creet, imprudent,  forgetful  of  herself,  if  it  be  so,  but 
innocent  of  the  last  and  the  greatest  crime  of  a  mar- 
ried woman.  I  say,  to  both  parties  it  is  important.  I 
cannot  deny,  of  course,  that  her  interest  in  such  a 
result  is,  perhaps,  the  greater  of  the  two.  For  her,, 
indeed,  it  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  every  thing  is 
staked  upon  the  result.  I  cannot,  of  course,  hope,  I 
cannot  say,  that  any  verdict  you  can  render  will  ever 

22 


338  MEMOIR   OF  RUFUS   CHOATE.         [CHAP.  IX. 

enable  her  to  recall  those  weeks  of  folly,  and  frivolity, 
and  vanity,  without  a  blush —  without  a  tear  ;  I  can- 
not desire  that  it  should  be  so.  But,  gentlemen, 
whether  these  grave  and  impressive  proceedings  shall 
terminate  by  sending  this  young  wife  from  your  pres- 
ence with  the  scarlet  letter  upon  her  brow  ;  whether 
in  this  her  morning  of  life,  her  name  shall  be  thus 
publicly  stricken  from  the  roll  of  virtuous  women,  — 
her  whole  future  darkened  by  dishonor,  and  waylaid 
by  temptation  ;  her  companions  driven  from  her  side, 
herself  cast  out,  it  may  be,  upon  common  society,  the 
sport  of  libertines,  unassisted  by  public  opinion,  or 
sympathy,  or  self-respect,  —  this  certainly  rests  with 
you.  For  her,  therefore,  I  am  surely  warranted  in 
saying,  that  more  than  her  life  is  at  stake.  '  What- 
soever things  are  honest,  whatsoever  things  are  pure, 
whatsoever  things  are  lovely,  whatsoever  things  are 
of  good  report,  if  there  be  any  virtue,  if  there  be  any 
praise,'  all  the  chances  that  are  to  be  left  her  in  life 
for  winning  and  holding  these  holy,  beautiful,  and 
needful  things,  rest  with  you.  .  .  . 

"  But  is  there  not  another  person,  gentlemen,  inter- 
ested in  these  proceedings  with  an  equal,  or  at  least  a 
supreme,  interest  with  the  respondent,  that  you  shall 
be  able  by  your  verdict  to  say  that  Helen  Dalton  is 
not  guilty  of  the  crime  of  adultery  ;  and  is  not  that 
person  her  husband  ?  ...  If  you  can  here  and  now 
on  this  evidence  acquit  your  consciences,  and  render 
a  verdict  that  shall  assure  this  husband  that,  a  jury  of 
Suffolk — -men  of  honor  and  spirit  —  some  of  them 
his  personal  friends,  believe  that  he  has  been  the  vic- 
tim of  a  cruel  and  groundless  jealousy  ;  that  they 
believe  that  he  has  been  led  by  that  scandal  that 


1855-1858.]  DEFENCE    OF    MRS.    DALTON.  339 

circulates  about  him,  that  has  influenced  him  every- 
where ;  that  he  has  been  made  to  misconceive  the 
nature  and  overestimate  the  extent  of  the  injury  his 
wife  has  done  him  ;  ...  if  you  can  thus  enable  him 
to  see  that  without  dishonor  he  may  again  take  her  to 
his  bosom,  let  me  ask  you  if  any  other  human  being 
can  do  another  so  great  a  kindness  as  this  ?  " 

He  then  went  on  throughout  the  day,  with  a  gen- 
eral statement  and  review  of  the  evidence,  so  as  to  con- 
ciliate the  jury  to  the  theory  of  culpable  indiscretion 
indeed,  but  of  indiscretion  consistent,  after  all,  with 
innocence.  This  was  the  theme  of  all  the  variations  of 
that  music,  —  an  intimacy  light,  transient,  indiscreet, 
foolish,  inexcusable,  wrong,  }ret  not  carried  to  the  last 
crime,  —  consistent  still  with  devoted  love  for  her 
husband,  whom  "  she  followed,  half  distracted,  to  the 
jail,  —  hovering  about  that  cell,  —  a  beam  of  light,  a 
dove  of  constant  presence."  To  this  was  added  the 
fact  that  after  most  of  these  indiscretions  were  known 
to  Dalton,  and  after  the  scene  when  Sumner  was 
assaulted  and  driven  from  the  house,  he  still  loved, 
cherished,  and  lived  with  her,  and  wrote  that  series  of 
letters  from  the  jail  "  so  beautiful,  so  manly,  one  long, 
unbroken  strain  of  music,  the  burthen  of  which  is 
home,  sweet  home  ;  and  you,  my  loved  one,  my  fond 
one, — dearer  and  better  for  what  has  happened, — 
you  again  to  fill,  illumine,  and  bless  it." 

These  thoughts  he  never  lost  sight  of  during  the 
long  and  varied  statement,  and  the  searching  exam- 
ination of  the  evidence,  which  followed.  A  part  of 
that  evidence  was  hard  to  evade.  Two  witnesses  had 
sworn  to  a  confession,  or  what  amounted  to  one,  on 
the  part  of  Mrs.  Dalton.  How  their  evidence  and 


340  MEMOIR  OF   RUFUS   CHOATE.          [CHAP.  IX. 

characters  were  sifted,  no  one  can  forget  who  heard, 
nor  fail  to  understand,  who  reads.  They  crumbled 
in  his  hand  like  clay.  Sometimes  with  the  gravest 
denunciation  and  sometimes  with  the  keenest  ridicule, 
he  demonstrated  the  improbabilities  and  impossibili- 
ties of  the  testimony,  till  all  felt  that  if  there  was  not 
perjury  there  must  be  mistake.  Seldom  has  a  witness 
been  held  up  in  a  light  more  irresistibly  ludicrous 
than  John  H.  Coburn,  who  had  confessed  to  making 
false  representations  by  telegraphic  communications 
and  otherwise,  in  order  to  excite  the  fear  of  Mr.  Gove, 
the  father  of  Mrs.  Dalton,  and  extort  from  him  money 
and  clothing  (as  he  was  a  clothing  merchant).  "  He 
found  out,"  said  the  advocate,  "  that  Mr.  Gove  was 
extremely  exercised  by  the  attack  upon  his  daughter, 
4  and,'  says  he,  '  I  will  have  a  jacket  and  trousers  out 
of  this  business,  —  I  see  pantaloons  there  ;  I  will  have 
a  game  of  billiards  and  a  suit  of  clothes,  or  I  am 
nobody ! ' '  The  house  was  convulsed  with  laughter 
at  the  ludicrous  picture.  At  the  same  time  he  was 
most  careful  not  to  carry  the  raillery  too  far.  "  I  am 
bringing  him  up  to  the  golden  tests  and  standards  by 
which  the  law  weighs  proof,  or  the  assayer  weighs 
gold."  But  it  might  be  said  that  this  proceeding  of 
Coburn  was  only  a  joke.  "Practise  a  joke  under 
those  circumstances !  "  said  the  advocate.  "  Is  this 
the  character  of  Coburn?  Why,  he  admitted  all  this 
falsehood  on  the  stand  in  such  a  winning,  ingenuous, 
and  loving  way,  —  that  he  was  a  great  rogue  and  liar, 
and  had  been  everywhere,  —  that  we  were  almost 
attracted  to  him.  It  is,  therefore,  fit  and  proper  we 
should  know  that  this  winning  confession  of  Coburn 
on  the  stand  was  not  quite  so  voluntary  after  all. 


1855-1858.]  DEFENCE   OF  MRS.   DALTON.  341 

This  Coburn,  about  six  days  ago,  was  attacked  by  a 
very  bad  erysipelas  in  his  foot  or  ankle.  In  my 
humble  judgment  it  was  an  erysipelas  of  apprehension 
about  coming  into  the  court-house  to  testify  under 
the  eye  of  the  court  and  jury.  But  he  was  attacked ; 
and  accordingly  we  sent  a  couple  of  eminent  physi- 
cians —  Drs.  Dana  and  Durant  —  to  see  what  they 
could  do  for  him,  and  they  put  him  through  a  course 
of  warm  water  or  composition  powder,  or  one  thing  or 
another,  till  they  cured  the  erysipelas  beyond  all  doubt, 
gentlemen.  They  cured  the  patient,  but  they  killed 
the  witness.  [Here  the  sheriff  had  to  interfere  to 
check  the  laughter.]  So  the  man  came  upon  the 
stand  and  admitted  he  sent  this  communication  by 
telegraph,  and  the  message  from  the  Parker  and  the 
Tremont.  He  swore  forty  times  very  deliberately 
that  he  never  wrote  one  of  them,  —  deliberately  and 
repeatedly  over  and  over  again,  —  and  it  was  not  till 
my  friend,  the  Doctor  here,  had  turned  the  screw 
about  a  hundred  times  with  from  forty  to  fifty  inter- 
rogations, that  he  was  beaten  from  one  covert  into 
another,  until  at  last  he  was  obliged  to  confess  — 
although  he  began  with  most  peremptorily  denying  it 
altogether  —  that  he  sent  the  telegraph  and  wrote  the 
forged  communication  from  the  Tremont  and  the 
Parker  House." 

So  the  stream  of  argument  and  raillery,  and  sarcasm 
and  pathos,  rolled  on  ample,  unchecked,  and  over- 
whelming, for  two  long  summer  days  (no  one  in  the 
throng  of  auditors  restless  or  weary),  and  drew  to  its 
close  in  exquisite  quietness  and  beauty.  "  I  leave  her 
case,  therefore,"  said  the  advocate,  as  if  repeating  the 
refrain  of  a  hymn,  "  upon  this  statement,  and  respect- 


342  MEMOIR   OF  RUFUS    CHOATE.          [CHAP.  IX. 

fully  submit  that  for  both  their  sakes  you  will  render 
a  verdict  promptly  and  joj^fully  in  favor  of  Helen 
Dalton  —  for  both  their  sakes.  There  is  a  future  for 
them  both  together,  gentlemen,  I  think.  But  if  that 
be  not  so,  —  if  it  be  that  this  matter  has  proceeded  so 
far  that  her  husband's  affections  have  been  alienated, 
and  that  a  happy  life  in  her  case  has  become  imprac- 
ticable,—  yet  for  all  that,  let  there  be  no  divorce. 
For  no  levity,  no  vanity,  no  indiscretion,  let  there  be 
a  divorce.  I  bring  to  your  minds  the  words  of  Him 
who  spake  as  never  man  spake  :  '  Whosoever  putteth 
away  his  wife  '  —  for  vanity,  for  coquetry,  for  levity, 
for  flirtation  —  whosoever  putteth  away  his  wife  for 
any  thing  short  of  adultery,  and  that  established  by 
clear,  undoubted,  and  credible  proof,  —  whosoever 
does  it,  '  cause th  her  to  commit  adultery.'  If  they 
may  not  be  dismissed  then,  gentlemen,  to  live  again 
together,  for  her  sake  and  her  parents'  sake  sustain 
her.  Give  her  back  to  self-respect,  and  the  assistance 
of  that  public  opinion  which  all  of  us  require." 

One  word  of  the  last  letter  of  the  wife  to  the  hus- 
band, arid  a  single  echoing  sentence,  finished  this 
remarkable  speech.  "  '  Wishing  you  much  happiness 
and  peace  with  much  love,  if  you  will  accept  it,  I 
remain,  your  wife.'  So  may  she  remain  until  that  one 
of  them  to  whom  it  is  appointed  first  to  die  shall  find 
the  peace  of  the  grave ! " 

The  mere  reading  of  this  argument  can  give  but 
a  feeble  idea  of  its  beauty  and  cogency  to  those  who 
were  so  fortunate  as  to  listen.  Oftentimes,  before  a 
legal  tribunal,  the  cause  is  greater  than  the  advocate. 
He  rises  to  it,  and  is  upheld  by  it.  But  sometimes  it 
is  his  province  to  create  an  interest,  which  the  subject 


1865-1858.]        LETTER   TO   EDWARD   EVERETT.  343 

itself  does  not  afford  ;  to  enliven  the  dull ;  to  dignify 
the  mean  ;  to  decorate  the  unseemly.  The  body  may 
be  vile,  but  he  arrays  it  in  purple  and  crowns  it  with 
gems.  This  case,  though  with  some  elements  of 
unusual  character,  would  probably  have  fallen  to  the 
dreary  level  of  similar  actions,  were  it  not  lifted  and 
enveloped  in  light  by  the  genius  of  the  advocate.  It 
is  like  some  of  those  which  made  Ersldne  and  Curran 
famous ;  and  the  defence  shows  a  power  not  inferior 
to  theirs.  As  a  result  of  it,  the  jury  disagreed  ;  the 
divorce  was  not  consummated;  and  it  is  understood 
(as  if  to  make  the  spirit  of  the  argument  prophetic) 
that  the  parties  are  now  living  together  in  harmony. 

The  following  letters  need  no  explanation  :  — 

To  HON.  EDWARD  EVERETT. 

"  BOSTON,  Sept.  30th,  1857. 

"Mr  DEAR  SIR, —  I  was  sick  when  your  kindest  gift  of 
the  Inauguration  Discourse 1  was  brought  in,  and  although 
able  to  read  it  instantly,  —  for  I  was  not  dying,  —  it  is  only 
now  that  I  have  become  able  to  thank  you  for  your  courtesy, 
and  to  express  the  exceeding  delight,  and,  as  it  were,  triumph, 
witli  which  I  have  studied  this  most  noble  exposition  of  the 
good,  fair,  and  useful  of  the  high  things  of  knowledge.  To 
have  said  on  such  themes  what  is  new  and  yet  true,  in  words 
so  exact  as  well  as  pictured  and  burning,  and  in  a  spirit  so 
fresh  and  exulting,  and  yet  wise,  sober,  and  tender,  was,  I 
should  have  thought,  almost  impossible  even  for  you.  I  won- 
der as  much  as  I  love,  and  am  proud  for  you  on  the  double 
tie  of  friendship  and  of  country. 

"  I  remain,  with  greatest  regard, 

"  Your  servant  and  friend, 

"  RUFUS  CHOATE." 

1  An  Address  delivered  at  St.  Louis,  at  the  Inauguration  of  Wash- 
ington University  of  the  State  of  Missouri. 


344  MEMOIE  OF  RUFUS   CHOATE.          [CHAP.  IX. 


To  HON.  EDWARD  EVERETT. 

"  WINTHROP  PLACE,  Nov.  17th,  1857. 

"Mr  DEAR  SIR, —  I  was  not  aware  of  that  hiatus,  and  I 
made  an  exchange  of  my  21  vols.  for  a  set  extending  over  a 
longer  period,  and  containing  30  vols.  or  more.  I  have  found 
no  defect  that  I  remember.  I  beg  you  to  supply  your  imme- 
diate wants  from  this  one,  if  it  is  not  just  as  bad. 

"  There  is  a  certain  gloomy  and  dangerous  sense  in  which 
I  am  '  gratified.'  But  '  renown  and  grace '  —  where  are  they  ? 
Such  a  series  of  papers  as  you  hint  at  would  'bless  mankind, 
and  rescue '  Mr.  Buchanan.  I  entreat  you  to  give  him  and 
all  conservative  men  an  idea  of  a  patriot  administration. 
Kansas  must  be  free  —  sud  sponte  —  and  the  nation  kept 
quiet  and  honest,  yet  with  a  certain  sense  of  growth,  nor  un- 
mindful of  opportunities  of  glory. 

"  Most  truly,  your  friend, 

"R.  CHOATE." 

A  lecture  on  Jefferson,  Burr,  and  Hamilton,  which 
he  delivered  March  10th,  1858,  though  of  necessity 
general  and  somewhat  desultory,  was  marked  by  his 
usual  breadth  of  delineation  and  brilliancy  of  color- 
ing, and  led  him  to  review  and  re-state  some  of  the 
fundamental  ideas  which  marked  the  origin  and  pro- 
gress of  our  government.  I  pass  by  his  delineation 
of  Jefferson,  who  brought  to  the  great  work  of  that 
era  "  the  magic  of  style  and  the  habit  and  the  power 
of  delicious  dalliance  with  those  large  and  fair  ideas 
of  freedom  and  equality,  so  dear  to  man,  so  irresistible 
in  that  day ; "  and  of  Burr,  to  whom  he  was  just,  but 
whom  he  did  not  love,  and  whose  "  shadow  of  a 
name  "  he  thought  it  unfair  to  compare  for  a  moment 
with  either  of  the  others  ;  and  content  myself  with 
the  conclusion  of  his  sketch  of  Hamilton.  After  re- 
ferring to  the  progress  and  the  changes  in  the  public 
sentiment  of  America,  by  which  the  Confederation, 


1855-1858.]  LECTURE   ON   HAMILTON.  345 

largely  through  Hamilton's  influence,  melted  into  the 
Union,  he  proceeds  :  — 

"  I  find  him  [Hamilton]  growing  from  his  speech  in 
'  the  Great  Fields,'  at  seventeen,  in  1774,  to  the  last 
number  of  '  The  Federalist.'  I  find  him  everywhere 
in  advance  ;  everywhere  frankest  of  our  public  men. 
Earlier  than  every  other,  bolder  than  every  other,  he 
saw  and  he  announced  that  the  Confederation  could 
not  govern,  could  not  consolidate,  could  not  create 
the  America  for  which  we  had  been  fighting.  Sooner 
than  every  one  he  saw  and  taught  that  we  wanted, 
not  a  league,  but  a  government.  Sooner  than  every 
one  he  saw  that  a  partition  of  sovereignty  was  prac- 
ticable,—  that  the  State  might  retain  part,  the  new 
nation  acquire  part ;  —  that  the  grander,  more  im- 
perial —  the  right  of  war,  of  peace,  of  diplomacy,  of 
taxation,  of  commerce,  and  rights  similar  and  kindred 
—  might  be  acquired  and  wielded  directly  by  the 
nation,  and  the  vast,  various,  and  uncertain  residue 
held  by  the  States,  which  in  this  system  were  an 
essential  part ;  —  that  the  result  would  be  one  great 
People  —  E  Pluribus  Unum  —  master  of  a  continent, 
a  match  for  a  world.  To  him  more  than  to  all  or  any 
one  besides  we  owe  it,  that  the  convention  at  Annap- 
olis ascended  above  the  vain,  timid,  and  low  hope 
of  amending  the  old  Articles,  assumed  the  high 
character  of  a  direct  representation  of  the  People 
of  these  States,  and  took  on  themselves  the  responsi- 
bility of  giving  to  that  People  for  acceptance  or  rejec- 
tion—  by  conventions  in  their  States  —  a  form  of 
government  completely  new. 

"  These  speculations,  these  aims,  ruled  his  life  from 
1780  to  1789.  'That  age  — all  of  it  — is  full  of  his 


346  MEMOIR    OF  RUFUS    CHOATE.          [CHAP.  IX. 

power,  his  truth,  his  wisdom,'  —  full  to  running  over. 
Single  sentiments  ;  particular  preferences,  minor,  and 
less  or  more  characteristic  ;  less  cherished  details,  — 
modes,  stages,  proofs  of  opinion,  —  of  these  I  have 
said  nothing,  for  history  cares  nothing.  I  do  not 
maintain  that  he  did  as  much  in  the  convention  at 
Annapolis  as  others  to  shape  the  actual  provisions  of 
the  Constitution.  I  do  not  contend  that  he  liked  all 
of  them  very  well.  But  soldier-like,  statesman-like, 
sailor-like,  he  felt  the  general  pulse  ;  he  surveyed  his 
country;  he  heaved  the  lead  at  every  inch  of  his 
way.  His  great  letter  to  Duane  in  1780  anticipates 
the  Union  and  the  Government  in  which  we  live. 
Through  the  press,  in  the  Assembly  of  New  York,  in 
the  old  Congress,  to  some  extent  in  the  Constitutional, 
and  to  large  extent  in  the  State  Convention,  he  was 
first ;  he  who,  like  Webster,  never  flattered  the  people, 
but  served  them  as  he  did,  dared  to  address  their 
reason,  their  interests,  —  not  their  passion  of  progress, 
—  in  'The  Federalist.'  And  of  the  foremost  and  from 
the  start  he  espoused  that  Constitution  all  as  his,  and 
loved,  and  honored,  and  maintained  it  all  till  he  went 
to  his  untimely  grave. 

"  I  dwell  on  that  time  from  1780  to  1789  because 
that  was  our  age  of  civil  greatness.  Then,  first,  we 
grew  to  be  one.  In  that  time  our  nation  was  born. 
That  which  went  before  made  us  independent.  Our 
better  liberty,  our  law,  our  order,  our  union,  our 
credit,  our  commerce,  our  rank  among  the  nations, 
our  page  in  the  great  history  we  owe  to  this.  Inde- 
pendence was  the  work  of  the  higher  passions.  The 
Constitution  was  the  slow  product  of  wisdom.  I  do 
not  deny  that  in  that  age  was  sown  the  seed  of  our 


1855-1858.]  LECTURE   ON  HAMILTON.  347 

party  divisions ;  of  our  strict  and  our  liberal  Con- 
structionists ;  of  our  Unionists  and  States  Rights 
Men ;  of  smaller  Hamiltons,  and  smaller  Jeffersons. 
But  who  now  dares  raise  a  hand  against  the  system 
which  illustrates  that  day  ?  Who  dares  now  to  say 
that  the  Union  shall  not  stand  as  they  left  it?  Who 
dares  now  to  say  that  the  wide  arch  of  empire  ranged 
by  them  shall  not  span  a  continent  ?  Who  dares  now 
to  say  that  the  America  of  that  day  ;  the  America  of 
this ;  the  America  of  all  time  and  all  history,  is  not 
his  own  America  ;  first,  last,  midst ;  who  does  not 
hail  on  that  flag,  streaming  over  land  and  sea,  — 
living  or  dying,  —  the  writing,  bathed  and  blazing  in 
light,  '  Liberty  and  Union,  now  and  for  ever,  one  and 
inseparable  ! ' 

*'  The  public  life  of  Hamilton  closes  with  the  fall  of 
Federalism,  in  1801,  as  a  party  of  the  nation.  In  his 
administration  as  first  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  in 
his  general  counsels  to  Washington,  in  his  general  in- 
fluence on  the  first  years  of  our  youthful  world,  you 
see  the  same  masterly  capacity  ;  the  same  devotion  to 
the  Constitution  as  it  was  written,  and  to  the  Union 
which  it  helped  to  grow ;  the  same  civil  wisdom  ;  the 
same  filial  love ;  the  same  American  feeling ;  the 
same  transparent  truth  which  had  before  made  him 
our  first  of  statesmen.  Some,  all,  or  almost  all,  of  the 
works  which  he  did,  have  come  under  the  judgment 
of  party  and  of  time ;  and  on  these,  opinions  are 
divided.  But  no  man  has  called  in  question  the 
ability  which  established  all  departments,  and  framed 
and  presided  over  that  one ;  which  debated  the  con- 
stitutionality and  expediency  of  that  small  first  Bank ; 
which  funded  our  debts,  restored  order  to  our  credit ; 


348  MEMOIR   OF   RUFUS   CHOATE.          [CHAP.  IX. 

which  saw  in  us  before  we  saw,  before  Smith  saw,  our 
capacity  to  manufacture  for  ourselves ;  which  made 
us  impartial  and  made  us  neutral  while  our  ancient 
friend  became  a  Republic,  and  our  ancient  enemy 
and  the  world  were  in  arms  for  old,  shaking  thrones. 
When  that  argument  for  the  Bank  was  read  by  the 
Judges  in  1819,  one  of  them  said,  that  every  other 
supporter  and  opponent  of  that  measure  in  the  age 
of  Washington  seemed  a  child  in  the  grasp  of  a  giant. 
In  this  last  era  his  difference  in  all  things  from  Jeffer- 
son became  more  widely  pronounced ;  each  retired 
from  the  cabinet ;  and  in  1801  Democracy  became  the 
national  politics  of  America. 

"  I  have  avoided,  as  I  ought,  all  inquiry  into  the 
private  life  of  Burr.  I  am  equally  reserved  on  that 
of  Hamilton ;  although  that  private  life  fears  no  dis- 
closures as  a  whole,  and  no  contrasts  as  a  whole.  Yet 
this  sketch  would  be  imperfect  more  than  it  must  be, 
if  I  did  not  add  something  which  I  have  read,  heard, 
or  thought  on  the  man. 

"  From  1781  to  1789,  and  again  from  1795  till  his 
death  in  1804  —  some  seventeen  years  —  he  practised 
the  law.  I  hear  that  in  that  profession  he  was  wise, 
safe,  and  just ;  that  his  fees  were  moderate  ;  that  his 
honor  was  without  a  stain ;  that  his  general  ability 
was  transcendent,  and  that  in  rank  he  was  leader. 
A  gentleman  from  this  city,  whose  name  I  might 
give,  solicited  his  counsel  in  some  emergency.  He 
admired,  as  all  did,  his  knowledge  of  men,  his  inge- 
nuity, his  promptness ;  and  tendered  him  a  fee  of  one 
hundred  dollars.  '  No,  Sir,'  said  Hamilton,  handing 
him  back  the  difference, '  twenty  dollars  is  very  abun- 
dant.' He  was  consulted  by  a  guardian,  knavish  as 


1855-1858.]  LECTURE   OX   HAMILTON.  349 

the  guardian  of  Demosthenes.  He  heard  his  story ; 
developed  its  details ;  ran  with  him  through  the 
general  wilderness  of  his  roguery ;  and  then,  sternly 
as  at  Yorktown,  — '  Now  go  and  make  your  peace 
Math  your  ward,  or  I  will  hunt  you  as  a  hare  for  his 
skin.'  There  was  a  political  opponent,  —  oldish,  del- 
icate, and  prejudiced,  —  who  hated  him  and  his  ad- 
ministration of  the  treasury,  but  who  lost  no  hour, 
day  in  and  day  out,  at  Albany,  in  the  Errors  and 
Supreme  Court,  to  hear  ever}r  word  that  he  said.  '  I 
could  never,'  said  he,  'withdraw  from  him  half  an 
eye.  It  was  all  one  steady,  flashing,  deepening 
flow  of  mind.'  This  I  heard  from  a  member  of  Con- 
gress. 

"  His  masterpiece  at  the  Bar  was  the  defence  of 
Croswell,  of  '  The  Balance,'  published  at  Hudson,  for 
a  libel,  in  1804.  It  is  reported  in  Johnson's  cases. 
It  is  better  reported  by  Chancellor  Kent,  who  heard 
it;  by  the  universal  tradition,  which  boasts  of  it  as  of 
the  grandest  displays  of  the  legal  profession :  and  by 
the  common  or  statute  law  of  America,  on  which  it  is 
written  for  ever.  There  and  then  he  engraved  on 
our  mind,  as  with  a  pen  of  steel,  the  doctrine,  that 
truth  from  right  motives,  for  justifiable  ends,  might 
be  safely  written  of  everybody,  high  or  low. 

"Such  —  so  limited — is  our  unwritten  or  our  better 
liberty. 

"  That  argument  was  made  to  a  bench  of  Judges. 
It  was  made  to  an  audience  of  lawyers  and  educated 
men  ;  and  I  have  heard  that  tears  unbidden  —  silence 
that  held  his  breath  to  hear  applause  unrepressed  — 
murmurs  not  loud,  but  deep  —  marked  the  magic  and 
the  power. 


350  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS   CHOATE.         [CHAP.  IX. 

"  He  wrote  out  that  argument  at  length  ;  then  tore 
his  manuscript  in  fragments,  and  spoke  as  he  was 
moved  of  the  genius  within  him ! 

"  Who  surpassed  him  as  a  reasoner  ?  You  all 
know  the  calm  power  of  '  The  Federalist.'  Do  you 
admire  any  thing  in  that  immortal  work  more  than 
his  transparent  and  quiet  style  ;  his  pure  English, 
always  equal  to  itself;  his  skilful  interpretation  ;  his 
masterly  ability  with  which  from  the  nature  of  man, 
the  nature  of  government,  the  lessons  of  history,  the 
past  and  present  of  Europe,  the  uses  of  a  head,  the 
uses  of  a  nation,  —  he  demonstrated  that  such  powers 
must  be  given,  and  such  powers  are  given?  Who, 
since  the  eighty-eighth  number,  has  dared  to  doubt 
that  to  the  judge  it  is  given  to  compare  the  law  with 
the  Constitution,  and  to  pronounce  which  is  higher  ; 
and  that  from  the  judge  there  lies  no  appeal ! 

"  What  a  revolution  may  do  to  force  prematurely 
the  capacity  of  man,  we,  thank  God !  know  not. 
What  a  cross  of  Scotch  and  Huguenot  blood  ;  a 
birth,  infancy,  childhood,  and  boyhood  beneath  those 
tropics  where  the  earthquake  revels,  which  the  hurri- 
cane sweeps  over,  which  the  fever  wastes  at  noonday, 
over  which  the  sun  tyrannizes,  whose  air  is  full  of 
electricity,  and  whose  soil  is  of  fire,  —  personally  we 
know  not.  But  I  own  I  am  struck  with  nothing 
more  than  the  precociousness  of  those  mighty  powers, 
and  their  equal,  balanced,  and  safe  development.  At 
seventeen,  he  addressed  masses  on  non-importation  in 
'  the  Great  Fields '  of  New  York,  with  the  eloquence 
and  energy  of  James  Otis.  At  eighteen,  he  was 
among  our  ablest  and  wisest  in  the  conduct  of  that 
great  controversy  with  the  measures  of  a  king.  At 


1855-1858.]  LECTURE    ON  HAMILTON.  351 

twenty,  he  conceived  our  Union.  At  thirty-two  he 
wrote  his  share  of  '  The  Federalist.'  At  thirty-eight 
his  public  life  was  over.  I  doubt  if  Pascal,  if  Grotius, 
if  Csesar,  if  Napoleon,  had  so  early  in  life  revealed 
powers  vaster  and  maturer. 

"  There  is  one  memory  of  Hamilton  to  which  he  is 
entitled  in  his  bloody  grave,  and  by  which  his  truest 
eulogy  is  spoken,  which  refutes  of  itself  ten  thousand 
slanders,  and  which  blooms  over  him  —  over  Hoboken 
—  over  the  church  where  his  tomb  is  kept,  —  ever  fra- 
grant and  ever  new.  "With  the  exception,  of  course, 
of  certain  political  opponents,  and  of  a  competitor  or 
two,  no  one  knew  him  who  did  not  dearly  love  him  ;  no 
one  loved  him  once  that  did  not  love  him  to  the  last 
gasp.  From  the  moment  he  saw  and  talked  with  him 
as  Captain  of  Artillery,  from  the  hour  after  he  left  his 
military  family,  until  he  slept  that  long  sleep  at  Mount 
Vernon,  Washington  held  him  to  his  heart;  and  when 
that  man  —  greatest  of  earth  —  died,  Hamilton  sat 
down  speechless  in  the  presence  of  Sedgwick,  pressed 
his  hand  upon  his  eyes,  and  cried  as  a  child  for  a 
father  dead.  '  The  tears,'  said  Ames,  '  that  flow 
over  this  fond  recital  will  never  dry  up.  My  heart, 
prostrated  with  the  remembrance  of  Hamilton,  grows 
liquid  as  I  write,  and  I  could  pour  it  out  like 
water.' 

"  To  compare  the  claims  and  deeds  of  Burr  with 
those  of  this  great  man,  his  victim,  were  impious. 
To  compare  those  of  Hamilton,  or  contrast  them  with 
those  of  the  great  Philanthropist  and  Democrat, 
Thomas  Jefferson,  who  is  equal  ?  Each  in  his  kind 
was  greatest ;  each  in  his  kind  advanced  the  true 
interests  of  America." 


352  MEMOIR   OF   RUFUS    CHOATE.          [CHAP.  IX. 

The  following  letter  will  illustrate  the  playful 
mixture  of  literature  with  business,  which  often 
characterized  Mr.  Choate's  intercourse  with  friends. 
It  occurred  after  a  meeting  on  professional  affairs, 
during  which  a  question  —  forgotten,  however,  almost 
as  soon  as  proposed,  till  thus  again  brought  to  mind 
—  had  arisen  on  the  reading  of  a  passage  in  Virgil. 

To  GEORGE  T.  DAYIS,  ESQ. 

"  BOSTON,  April  20th,  1858. 

"  DEAR  SIR,  —  I  am  glad  they  are  beaten,  as  they  deserve 
to  be.  Of  course,  no  adjustment  now  is  to  be  heard  of.  The 
motion  is  the  shadow  of  a  shade,  and  I  guess,  after  actual 
fraud  found,  the  bill  stands,  and  the  cancellation  follows,  — 
which  leads  me  to  say  how  Virgil  wrote  it,  averno,  or  averm. 
We  shall  never  know  till  we  ask  him  in  the  meads  of  Aspho- 
del. But  Forbiger.  Wagner,  Heyne,  Servius,  after  the 
cracker  MSS.,  write  averno.  So  in  the  more  showy  texts  it 
is  now.  When  we  meet  we  will  settle  or  change  all  that. 

"  Truly  yours,  RUFUS  CHOATE." 

In  1858  Mr.  Choate  accepted  an  invitation  to 
deliver  an  oration,  on  the  4th  of  July,  before  the 
Young  Men's  Democratic  Club.  It  was  with  the 
understanding,  however,  that  no  party  affinities  were 
to  be  recognized.  He  spoke  for  the  Union,  and  his 
subject  was  '•'•American  Nationality — its  Nature  — 
some  of  its  Conditions^  and  some  of  its  Ethics"  l  IJe 
was  received  with  wild  and  tumultuous  applause,  and 
heard  with  profound  interest  and  sympathy  by  the 
multitudes  which  crowded  the  Tremont  Temple  ;  but 
many  were  pained  to  perceive  the  marks  of  plrysical 
weakness  and  exhaustion.  He  spoke  with  difficulty, 

1  Published  in  the  first  edition  of  "  The  Life  and  Works,"  and  also 
in  "  Addresses  and  Orations  of  Rufus  Choate,"  second  edition, 
Little,  Brown,  &  Co.,  1878. 


1855-1858.]  FOUKTH  OF  JULY  ORATION.  353 

and  could  hardly  be  heard  throughout  the  large  hall. 
But  there  was  an  earnestness  and  almost  solemnity 
in  his  words  which  sunk  deep  into  the  hearts  of  the 
audience.  It  was  a  plea  for  the  nation,  in  view  of  a 
peril  which  he  thought  he  foresaw,  as  a  necessary 
result  of  rash  counsels,  of  a  false  political  philosophy, 
and  of  wild  theories  of  political  morality. 

It  was  full  of  the  warmest,  most  generous  patriotism. 
But  beyond  that  he  endeavored  to  illustrate  and  en- 
force some  of  the  essential  conditions,  on  which  every 
free  nation,  and  especially  one  so  vast,  so  complicated 
as  ours,  must  depend.  "  There  is  a  love  of  country," 
he  said,  "  which  comes  uncalled  for,  one  knows  not 
how.  It  comes  in  with  the  very  air,  the  eye,  the  ear, 
the  instincts,  the  first  taste  of  the  mother's  milk,  the 
first  beatings  of  the  heart.  The  faces  of  brothers 
and  sisters,  and  the  loved  father  and  mother,  —  the 
laugh  of  playmates,  the  old  willow^tree,  and  well,  and 
school-house,  the  bees  at  work  in  the  spring,  the  note 
of  the  robin  at  evening,  the  lullaby,  the  cows  coming 
home,  the  singing-book,  the  catechism,  the  visits  of 
neighbors,  the  general  training,  —  all  things  which 
make  childhood  happy,  begin  it ;  and  then  as  the  age 
of  the  passions  and  the  age  of  the  reason  draw  on,  and 
love  and  the  sense  of  home  and  security  and  property 
under  law,  come  to  life,  —  and  as  the  story  goes  round, 
and  as  the  book  or  the  newspaper  relates  the  less  fav- 
ored lots  of  other  lands,  and  the  public  and  the  private 
sense  of  a  man  is  forming  and  formed,  there  is  a  t}rpe 
of  patriotism  already.  Thus  they  had  imbibed  it  who 
stood  that  charge  at  Concord,  and  they  who  hung 
deadly  on  the  retreat,  and  they  who  threw  up  the 
hasty  and  imperfect  redoubt  on  Bunker  Hill  by  night, 

23 


354  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS  CHOATE.        [CHAP.  IX. 

set  on  it  the  blood-red  provincial  flag,  and  passed  so 
calmly  with  Prescott  and  Putnam  and  Warren  through 
the  experiences  of  the  first  fire. 

"  But  now  to  direct  this  spontaneous  sentiment  of 
hearts  to  the  Union,  to  raise  it  high,  to  make  it  broad 
and  deep,  to  instruct  it,  to  educate  it,  is  in  some 
things  harder,  some  things  easier :  but  it  may  be  done  ; 
it  must  be  done."  He  then  proceeds  to  show  the 
nature  of  the  Constitution,  and  of  all  practicable  policy, 
as  being  the  result  of  mutual  concessions  for  the  sake 
of  the  great  ends  of  civil  government,  and  to  meet 
the  question  whether  these  compromises  and  con- 
cessions for  such  an  end  are  a  virtue,  and  can  stand 
the  higher  test  of  morality.  The  affirmative  of  this 
question  he  maintains  from  the  judgment  of  civili- 
zation "  collected  from  all  its  expression  and  all  its 
exponents,"  —  from  the  highest  theory  of  political 
duty,  —  from  the  ^opinions  of  wise  civilians  and 
moralists,  —  and  farther  as  being  the  judgment  of 
religion  itself.  Of  other  conditions  and  laws  of  our 
nationality,  and  especially  of  the  need  of  an  enlight- 
ened public  opinion,  he  goes  on  to  say :  "  There 
must  then  be  intelligence  at  the  foundation.  But 
what  intelligence  ?  Not  that  which  puffeth  up,  not 
flippancy,  not  smartness,  not  sciolism,  whose  fruits, 
whose  expression  are  vanity,  restlessness,  insubordi- 
nation, hate,  irreverence,  unbelief,  incapacity  to  com- 
bine ideas,  and  great  capacity  to  overwork  a  single 
one.  Not  quite  this.  This  is  that  little  intelligence 
and  little  learning,  which  are  dangerous.  These  are 
the  characteristics,  I  have  read,  which  pave  the  way 
for  the  downfall  of  States  ;  not  those  on  which  a 
long  glory  and  a  long  strength  have  towered.  These, 


1855-1858.]  FOURTH  OF   JULY  ORATION.  355 

more  than  the  General  of  Macedon,  gave  the  poison 
to  Demosthenes  in  the  Island  Temple.  These,  not 
the  triumvirate  alone,  closed  the  eloquent  lips  of 
Cicero."  ..."  This  is  not  the  intelligence  our  Con- 
stitution means,  Washington  meant,  our  country 
needs.  It  is  intelligence  which,  however  it  begins, 
ends  with  belief,  with  humility,  with  obedience,  with 
veneration,  with  admiration,  with  truth  ;  which  rec- 
ognizes and  then  learns  and  then  teaches  the  duties  . 
of  a  comprehensive  citizenship  ;  which  hopes  for  a 
future  on  earth  and  beyond  earth,  but  turns  habitually, 
reverently,  thoughtfully,  to  the  old  paths,  the  great 
men,  the  hallowed  graves  of  the  fathers  ;  .  .  .  which 
reforms  by  preserving,  serves  by  standing  and  wait- 
ing, fears  God,  and  honors  America."  .  .  . 

Then  after  a  few  words  on  the  duty  of  instructing 
the  conscience,  and  the  hope  of  a  better  and  brighter 
day  through  the  quiet  and  peaceful  influences  of 
moral  forces,  he  adds  :  "  Hold  fast  this  hope  ;  distrust 
the  philanthropy,  distrust  the  ethics  which  would, 
which  must,  turn  it  into  shame.  Do  no  evil  that 
good  may  come.  Perform  your  share,  for  you  have 
a  share,  in  the  abolition  of  slavery ;  perform  your 
share,  for  you  have  a  share,  in  the  noble  and  generous 
strife  of  the  Sections,  —  but  perform  it  by  keeping, 
by  transmitting,  a  UNITED,  LOVING,  AND  CHRISTIAN 
AMERICA." 

This  whole  discussion  of  a  confessedly  difficult 
problem  of  political  ethics  deserves  the  careful  and 
unprejudiced  consideration  of  every  student  of  our 
civil  history. 

He  never  again  addressed  his  fellow-citizens   on 


356  MEMOIR   OF   RUFUS    CHOATE.          [CHAP.  IX. 

questions  of  general  political  interests,  and  his  last 
public  words  may  be  said  to  have  been  spoken  in 
behalf  of  that  Union  which  he  so  warmly  loved,  "  first, 
last,  and  always"  —  that  one  nation  whose  grand 
march  across  the  continent,  whose  unrivalled  increase 
in  all  the  elements  of  power  so  stimulated  and  grat- 
ified his  patriotic  ambition.  Whether  or  not  his 
fears  were  wise,  we  may  now  perhaps  be  better  able 
to  judge  than  when  he  first  uttered  them. 

How  his  words  were  received  by  those  who  heard 
him  was  admirably  expressed  by  Mr.  Everett  at  a 
banquet,  on  the  same  afternoon,  at  the  Revere  House. 
"  For  myself,  Sir,"  he  said,  "  standing  aloof  from  pub- 
lic life  and  from  all  existing  party  organizations,  I 
can  truly  say  that  I  have  never  listened  to  an  expo- 
sition of  political  principle  with  higher  satisfaction. 
I  heard  the  late  Mr.  Samuel  Rogers,  the  venerable 
banker-poet  of  London,  more  than  once  relate  that 
he  was  present  on  the  10th  of  December,  1790,  when 
Sir  Joshua  Reynolds  delivered  the  last  of  his  dis- 
courses before  the  Royal  Academy  of  Art.  Edmund 
Burke  was  also  one  of  the  audience  ;  and  at  the  close 
of  the  lecture  Mr.  Rogers  saw  him  go  up  to  Sir 
Joshua,  and  heard  him  say,  in  the  fulness  of  his 
delight,  in  the  words  of  Milton  :  — 

'  The  angel  ended,  and  in  Adam's  ear 
So  charming  left  his  voice,  that  he  awhile 
Thought  him  still  speaking,  still  stood  fixed  to  hear.' 

When  our  friend  concluded  his  superb  oration  this 
morning,  I  was  ready,  like  Mr.  Cruger  (who  stood  with 
Burke  for  the  representation  of  Bristol),  '  to  say  ditto 
to  Mr.  Burke.'  I  was  unwilling  to  believe  that  the 
noble  strain,  by  turns  persuasive,  melting,  and  sub- 


1855-1858.]          REMARKS  OF  MR.   EVERETT.  357 

lime,  had  ended.  The  music  of  the  voice  still  dwelt 
upon  my  ear ;  the  lofty  train  of  thought  elevated  and 
braced  my  understanding ;  the  generous  sentiments 
filled  my  bosom  with  delight,  as  the  peal  of  a  magnifi- 
cent organ,  touched  by  the  master's  hand,  thrills  the 
nerves  with  rapture  and  causes  even  the  vaulted  roof 
to  vibrate  in  unison.  The  charmed  silence  seemed 
for  a  while  to  prolong  tjie  charming  strain,  and  it  was 
some  moments  before  I  was  willing  to  admit  that  the 
stops  were  closed  and  the  keys  hushed." 


358  MEMOIR   OF  RTJFUS   CHOATE.  [CHAP.  X. 


CHAPTER  X. 

1858-1859. 

Failing  Health  —  Speech  at  the  Webster  Festival,  January,  1859  — 
Address  at  the  Essex  Street  Church  —  Last  Law  Case  —  Goes  to 
Dorchester — Occupations  —  Decides  to  go  to  Europe — Letter  to 
Hon.  Charles  Eames  —  Letter  to  Alfred  Abbott,  Esq.  —  Sails  in 
the  Europa,  Captain  Leitch — Illness  on  Board — Lands  at  Halifax 
—  Letter  from  Hon.  George  S.  Hillard  —  Sudden  Death  —  Pro- 
ceedings of  Public  Bodies — Meeting  of  the  Boston  Bar —  Speeches 
of  Hon.  C.  G.  Loring,  R.  H.  Dana,  Judge  Curtis,  and  Judge 
Sprague  —  Meeting  hi  Faneuil  Hall  —  Speech  of  Mr.  Everett  — 
Funeral. 

FOR  several  years  Mr.  Choate's  health  had  not  unfre- 
quently  excited  the  anxiety  of  his  friends.  They 
wondered  how  he  could  endure  such  continuous  and 
exhausting  labors  ;  why  he,  whose  mind  was  always 
on  the  stretch,  who  took  no  rest,  and  allowed  himself 
no  recreation  but  that  of  his  library,  should  not  at 
last  fail,  like  the  over-strained  courser.  Their  fears 
were  not  groundless.  The  deepening  lines  of  his 
countenance  pallid  and  sallow,  the  frame  feebler 
than  once,  the  voice  less  strong,  the  whole  manner 
less  energetic,  demonstrated  a  need  of  caution.  He 
was  under  an  engagement  to  address  the  Alumni  of ' 
Dartmouth  College  at  their  triennial  meeting  in  1858, 
and  had  made  a  partial  preparation,  but  at  the  last 
moment  was  obliged  to  give  it  up,  and  betake  himself 
for  a  few  idle  and  wearisome  days  to  the  seaside.  A 
week  or  two  of  respite  from  work  —  it  could  not  be 


1858-1859.]       SPEECH  AT  WEBSTER  FESTIVAL.  359 

called  recreation  —  a  brief  visit  at  Essex,  a  few  nights 
in  Dorchester  at  the  residence  of  his  daughter,  Mrs. 
Bell — gave  tone  again  to  his  wonderfully  elastic 
constitution.  I  saw  him  repeatedly  during  the  next 
winter,  and,  notwithstanding  some  unfavorable  symp- 
toms, thought  that  for  a  long  time  I  had  not  seen  him 
in  such  exuberance  of  spirits.  I  heard  him  make  two 
arguments,  and  could  not  but  notice  the  vigorous  life 
with  which  he  moved.  There  was  the  same  intel- 
lectual face  —  the  same  eye,  black,  wide  open,  looking 
straight  at  the  jury,  and  at  individuals  of  them  as 
he  addressed  now  one  and  then  another, — the  same 
unrivalled  felicity  of  speech,  —  the  same  tremendous 
vehemence,  a  little  tempered,  perhaps,  —  the  same 
manner  of  straightening  and  drawing  himself  up 
at  an  interruption,  —  the  same  playfulness  and  good 
humor,  —  the  occasional  dropping  of  his  voice  to  a 
confidential  whisper,  —  the  confident  exactness  of 
statement,  —  the  absolute  command  of  every  circum- 
stance,—  the  instantaneous  apprehension,  —  the  light- 
ning rapidity  of  thought,  —  the  subtle,  but  clear  and 
impregnable  logic.  This  apparent  vigor  proved,  how- 
ever, to  be  but  the  last  flashes  of  the  fire  whose  fuel 
was  nearly  exhausted. 

The  friends  of  Mr.  Webster,  according  to  a  custom 
which  had  grown  into  honor  among  them,  celebrated 
his  birthday  in  1859  by  a  festive  gathering  which 
'Mr.  Choate  found  himself  able,  though  but  just  able, 
to  attend.  With  what  warmth  he  spoke  on  that 
theme  which  never  failed  to  stimulate  him,  those  who 
heard  will  never  forget.  They  thought  he  was  never 
so  eloquent. 

He  spoke  but  once  more  in  public  out  of  the  line 


360  MEMOIK  OF   RUFUS   CHOATE.          [CHAP.  X. 

of  his  profession.  The  twenty-fifth  anniversary  of 
the  settlement  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Adams,  whose  church 
he  attended,  was  celebrated  on  the  28th  of  March. 
He  could  not  resist  the  wish  to  bear  his  testimony  to 
the  opinions  and  character  of  one  whom  he  deeply 
respected  and  loved.  It  was  a  large  and  interesting 
assemblage  of  clergymen  and  laymen,  met  to  pay  a 
tribute  of  respect  to  a  faithful  Christian  minister. 
Mr.  Choate  spoke  with  great  tenderness  and  depth  of 
feeling  of  the  many  years  they  had  been  together  in 
that  society,  alluding  briefly,  in  illustration,  to  the 
great  events  which  in  the  mean  time  had  been  taking 
place  in  Europe  and  in  this  country.  He  then  spoke 
of  the  reasons  —  accident  or  inclination  —  which  had 
brought  them  to  that  house  as  their  habitual  place  of 
worship,  first  among  which  he  named  the  love  and 
respect  of  the  congregation  for  its  minister.  They  had 
marked  the  daily  beauty  of  his  life,  his  consistency, 
his  steadiness,  his  affectionateness,  his  sincerity,  — 
transparent  to  every  eye, — his  abilities,  his  moder- 
ation, his  taste,  his  courage.  They  had  seen  him  on 
some  occasions  most  interesting  to  the  feelings  and 
which  dwell  the  longest  in  the  memory  and  the  affec- 
tions :  at  the  bedside  of  the  sick  and  dying,  at  the 
burial  of  those  loved  most  on  earth,  at  the  baptism  of 
their  children,  or  when  first  they  clasped  the  hands  of 
their  brides.  Thus  between  them  and  him  there  had 
been  woven  a  tie  which  could  never  be  sundered,  even' 
when  the  silver  cord  itself  is  loosed  and  the  golden 
bowl  is  broken. 

"  There  is  a  second  reason,  however,"  he  proceeded 
to  say,  "  which  we  may  with  very  great  propriety  give 
for  the  selection  which  we  have  made,  and  to  which 


1858-1859.]    ADDRESS  AT  ESSEX  STREET  CHURCH.      361 

we  have  so  long  adhered ;  and  it  is,  my  friends,  that 
we  have  attended  this  worship  and  attached  ourselves 
to  this  society,  because  we  have  believed  that  we 
found  here  a  union  of  a  true  and  old  religion,  with  a 
possibility  and  the  dut}^  of  a  theory  of  culture  and  of 
love  for  that  in  which  the  mental  and  moral  nature 
of  man  may  be  developed  and  may  be  completely 
accomplished. 

"  That  we  hold  a  specific  religious  creed  is  quite 
certain ;  obtruding  it  on  nobody,  and  not  for  a  moment, 
of  course,  dreaming  of  defending  ourselves  against 
anybody, — in  the  way  of  our  fathers,  we  worship  God 
in  this  assembly.  We  believe  that  the  sources  and 
proof  and  authority  of  religion  rest  upon  a  written 
revelation,  communicated  by  the  Supreme  Will  to  a 
race  standing  in  certain  specific  abnormal  conditions. 
What  that  Will,  honestly  gathered,  teaches,  composes 
the  whole  religious  duty  of  man.  To  find  out  that 
meaning  by  all  the  aids  of  which  a  thorough  and  an 
honest  scholarship  may  possibly  avail  itself,  —  by 
the  study  of  original  tongues,  —  by  the  study  of  the 
history  and  government  and  manners  and  customs 
and  geography  of  the  nations  in  which  it  was  first 
published, — by  a  collation,  honestly  and  intelligently, 
of  one  version  with  another  version,  —  by  the  history 
of  creeds,  —  by  attending  especially  to  the  faith  of 
those  churches  who  thought  they  saw  the  light  at 
first,  and  saw  it  when  it  was  clearest  and  brightest,  — 
by  all  this,  we  say,  it  is  the  first  duty  of  the  minister 
to  learn  the  truth ;  and  the  second  duty  is  to  impress 
it  by  persuasive  speech  and  holy  life  upon  the  con- 
sciences and  hearts  of  men.  These  things,  truly  and 
honestly  interrogated,  reveal  a  certain  state  of  truths, 


362  MEMOIR  OF  RUEUS    CHOATE.          [CHAP.  X. 

and  these  compose  our  creed,  and  the  creed  of  every 
other  denomination  possessing  and  preaching  and 
maintaining  a  kindred  theology.  Diversities  of  ex- 
pression there  are  undoubtedly ;  diversities  of  the 
metaphysical  theories  of  those  who  hold  them  ;  more 
or  less  saliency,  more  or  less  illustration  in  the 
mode  in  which  they  are  presented ;  but  substantially 
we  have  thought  they  were  one.  We  regard  the 
unity,  and  we  forget  the  diversity,  in  concentration 
of  kindred  substances.  I  think  our  church  began 
with  the  name  and  in  the  principle  of  Union ;  and 
in  that  name,  and  according  to  that  principle,  we 
maintain  it  to-day. 

"  And  now,  is  there  any  thing,  my  friends,  in  all 
this,  which  is  incompatible,  in  any  degree,  with  the 
warmest  and  most  generous  and  large  and  liberal  and 
general  culture,  with  the  warmest  heart,  with  the 
most  expansive  and  hopeful  philanthropy,  with  the 
most  tolerant,  most  cheerful,  most  charitable  love  of 
man  ?  Do  we  not  all  of  us  hold  that  outside  of  this 
special,  authoritative,  written  revelation,  thus  pro- 
mulgated, collateral  with  it,  consistent  with  it,  the 
creation  of  the  same  nature,  there  is  another  system 
still,  a  mental  and  moral  nature,  which  we  may  with 
great  propriety  expose,  and  which  we  may  very  wisely 
and  fitly  study  and  enjoy?  Into  that  system  are  we 
forbidden  to  pry,  lest  we  become,  or  be  in  danger  of 
becoming,  Atheists,  Deists,  Pantheists,  or  Dilettanti, 
or  Epicurean  ?  What  is  there  to  hinder  us  from 
walking — consistently  with  our  faith  and  the  preach- 
ing to  which  every  Sunday  we  are  so  privileged  to 
listen  —  what  is  there  to  hinder  us  from  walking  on 
the  shore  of  the  great  ocean  of  general  truth,  and 


1858-1859.]     ADDRESS  AT  ESSEX  STREET  CHURCH.      363 

gathering  up  here  and  there  one  of  its  pebbles,  and 
listening  here  and  there  to  the  music  of  one  of  its 
shells?  What  is  there  to  hinder  us  from  looking  at 
that  natural  revelation  that  shall  be  true  hereafter  ? 
What  is  there  in  all  this  to  prevent  us  from  trying  to 
open,  if  we  can  open,  the  clasped  volume  of  that  elder, 
if  it  may  be  that  obscurer  Scripture  ?  What  is  there 
to  hinder  us  from  studying  the  science  of  the  stars, 
from  going  back  with  the  geologist  to  the  birthday  of 
a  real  creation,  and  thus  tracing  the  line  through  the 
vestiges  of  a  real  and  a  true  creation  down  to  that 
later  and  great  period  of  time,  when  the  morning  stars 
sang  together,  exulting  over  this  rising  ball  ?  What 
is  there  to  hinder  us,  if  we  dare  to  do  it,  from  going 
down  with  chemists  and  physiologists  to  the  very 
chambers  of  existence,  and  trying  thence  to  trace,  if 
we  may,  the  faint  lines  by  which  matter  rose  to  vital- 
ity, and  vitality  welled  up  first  to  animals,  and  then 
to  man  ?  What  is  there  to  prevent  us  from  trying  to 
trace  the  footsteps  of  God  in  history,  from  reading  his 
law  in  the  policies  of  States,  in  the  principles  of 
morals,  and  in  the  science  of  governments,  —  his  love 
in  the  happiness  of  all  the  families  of  the  human 
race,  in  animals  and  in  man,  —  his  retributions  in  the 
judgments  that  are  '  abroad  in  all  the  earth '  ?  Is 
there  any  thing  to  hinder  us,  in  the  faith  we  hold, 
from  indulging  the  implanted  sense  of  beauty  in 
watching  the  last  glow  of  the  summer  eve,  or  the 
first  faint  ftush  that  precedes  or  follows  the  glorious 
rising  of  the  morning  ?  Because  we  happen  to  believe 
that  a  written  revelation  is  authoritative  upon  every 
man,  and  that  there  is  contained  in  it,  distinctly  and 
expressly,  the  expression  of  the  need  of  reconciliation, 


364  MEMOIR  OF  ROFUS  CHOATE.  [CHAP.  X. 

is  there  any  thing  in  all  this,  let  me  ask  you,  my 
friends,  which  should  hinder  us  from  trying  to  ex- 
plore the  spirit  of  Plato,  from  admiring  the  suprem- 
acy of  mind — which  is  at  last  the  inspiration  of  the 
Almighty,  that  gives  you  understanding  —  in  such  an 
intellect  as  that  of  Newton,  —  from  looking  at  the 
camp-fires  as  they  glitter  on  the  plains  of  Troy,  — 
from  standing  on  the  battlements  of  heaven  with 
Milton,  —  from  standing  by  the  side  of  Macbeth, 
sympathizing  with,  or  at  least  appreciating  something 
of,  the  compunction  and  horror  that  followed  the 
murder  of  his  friend  and  host  and  king,  —  from  going 
out  with  old  Lear,  gray  hair  streaming,  and  throat 
choking,  and  heart  bursting  with  a  sense  of  filial 
ingratitude,  —  from  standing  by  the  side  of  Othello, 
when  he  takes  the  life  of  all  that  he  loves  best  in  this 
world, '  not  for  hate,  but  all  for  honor,'  —  from  admir- 
ing and  saddening  to  see  how  the  fond  and  deep 
and  delicate  spirit  of  Hamlet  becomes  oppressed  and 
maddened  by  the  terrible  discovery,  by  the  sense  of 
duty  not  entirely  clear,  by  the  conflict  of  emotions, 
and  by  the  shrinking  dread  of  that  life  to  come,  as  if 
he  saw  a  hand  we  could  not  see,  and  heard  a  voice 
we  could  not  hear  ?  Certainly  there  can  be  no  man- 
ner of  doubt  that  our  faith,  such  as  you  profess  it  and 
such  as  you  hold  it,  will  give  direction  in  one  sense 
to  all  our  studies.  There  can  be  no  doubt,  in  one 
sense  and  to  a  certain  extent,  it  baptizes  and  holds 
control  over  those  studies ;  certainly,  alsd,  it  may  be 
admitted,  that  it  creates  tendencies  and  tastes  that 
may  a  little  less  reluctantly  lead  away  a  man  from 
the  contemplation  of  these  subjects  ;  but  is  it  incom- 
patible with  them  ?  Do  you  think  that  Agassiz,  that 


1858-1859.]     ADDRESS  AT  ESSEX  STREET  CHURCH.      365 

Everett,  each  transcendent  in  his  own  department  of 
genius,  has  become  so,  because  he  held,  or  did  not 
hold,  a  specific  faith?  Because  you  believe  the  Old 
Testament,  as  well  as  the  New,  cannot  you  read  a 
classic  in  the  last  and  best  edition,  if  you  know  how 
to  read  it  ?  That  is  the  great  question  at  last,  and  I 
apprehend  that  the  incompatibility  of  which  we  some- 
times hear,  has  no  foundation  in  the  things  that  are 
to  be  compared.  Did  poor,  rich  Cowper  think  them 
incompatible,  one  with  another,  when  for  so  many 
years  he  soothed  that  burning  brow  and  stayed  that 
fainting  reason,  and  turned  back  those  dark  billows 
that  threatened  to  overwhelm  him,  by  his  translation 
of  the  Iliad  and  Odyssey  ?  What  did  he  say  of  this 
incompatibility  himself  ?  '  Learning  has  borne  such 
fruit  on  all  her  branches,  piety  has  found  true  friends 
in  the  friends  of  science,  even  prayer  has  flowed  from 
lips  wet  with  Castalian  dews.'  I  hold,  therefore,  — 
and  I  shall  be  excused  by  the  friends  of  other  denom- 
inations, now  and  here  present,  if  I  deliberately  re- 
peat and  publicly  record,  —  that  we  have  attended 
this  church,  attached  ourselves  to  this  congregation, 
and  adhere  to  this  form  of  faith,  because  we  believe  it 
to  be  the  old  religion,  the  true  religion,  and  the  safest ; 
and  because,  also,  we  have  thought  that  there  was 
no  incompatibility  between  it  and  the  largest  and 
most  generous  mental  culture,  and  the  widest  philan- 
thropy, that  are  necessary  in  order  to  complete  the 
moral  and  mental  development  and  accomplishment 
of  man." 

In  a  strain  quite  unusual,  he  then,  in  drawing  to  a 
close,  commended  and  enforced  the  separation  of  party 
politics  from  the  ordinary  services  of  the  pulpit. 


366  MEMOIR   OF   RUFUS    CHOATE.  [CHAP.  X. 

The  next  day,  March  29,  he  made  his  last  argument 
before  the  full  bench,  in  the  case  of  Gage  vs.  Tudor. 
The  indisposition  with  which  he  had  been  troubled 
during  the  winter  —  weakness,  lassitude,  and  a  fre- 
quently returning  nausea,  the  causes  of  which  were 
obscure,  and  not  reached  by  medicines  —  had  grad- 
ually increased  and  caused  him  more  annoyance.  His 
friends  were  solicitous ;  but  he  had  frequently  rallied 
from  serious  indisposition,  and  they  hoped  for  the 
best.  He  was  able  still  to  be  at  his  office  ;  once  more 
appeared  before  a  single  judge  in  chambers  upon  a 
question  of  alimony,  and  early  in  April,  though  really 
much  too  ill  for  the  exertion,  went,  at  the  earnest 
solicitation  of  a  junior,  to  look  after  a  case  in  Salem. 
It  seemed  a  felicity  of  his  life  that  the  last  time  he 
appeared  in  court  should  be  at  that  bar  where,  thirty- 
five  years  before,  he  had  commenced  the  practice  of 
his  profession,  —  the  Bar  of  Essex  County.  It  was 
a  case  of  a  contested  will,  of  considerable  interest  in 
itself,  the  decision  turning  upon  the  state  of  health  of 
the  testator.  But  those  who  were  engaged  in  it  were 
struck  at  observing  the  turn  given  by  Mr.  C  ho  ate  to 
the  examination  of  one  of  the  medical  witnesses, 
when,  after  obtaining  all  the  information  necessary  to 
the  point  in  hand,  he  proceeded  with  a  series  of  ques- 
tions bearing  evidently  upon  the  nature  of  the  disease 
under  which  he  supposed  himself  laboring.  No  notice 
was  taken  of  it  at  the  time  ;  but  he  subsequently 
alluded  to  it  in  conversation  with  his  junior  counsel, 
suggesting  that  he  thought  he  had  a  disease  of  the 
heart  which  might  at  any  moment  prove  fatal.  As 
the  cause  proceeded  he  found  himself  unequal  to  the 
labor  of  the  trial,  and  withdrew  from  it  before  its 


1858-1859.]  GOES    TO   DORCHESTER.  367 

close,  returning  home  on  Saturday  the  16th  of  April. 
He  never  went  to  his  office  again  ;  and  with  the 
exception  of  once  attending  church,  and  going  to  the 
funeral  of  a  daughter  of  a  much  revered  friend  (Hon. 
Jeremiah  Mason),  never  again  to  any  place  of  public 
assembly.  Books  became  more  than  ever  his  solace 
and  delight.  He  read  as  much  as  he  was  able,  but 
more  frequently  listened  (his  daughter  reading  aloud), 
not  to  whole  volumes  or  continuous  discussions,  but 
to  a  few  pages  of  Bacon,  a  scene  in  Shakspeare,  a  few 
lines  of  Homer,  a  page  of  Wordsworth,  a  poem  by 
Tennyson,  and  oftener  still  to  religious  works ;  to  a 
parable  or  miracle  as  expounded  by  Dr.  Trench,  a 
Hulsean  lecture  by  the  same  author,  a  discourse  by 
Jeremy  Taylor,  or  a  chapter  in  "  The  Pilgrim's 
Progress." 

His  attention  was  now  turned  to  a  voyage  to  Europe 
as  a  means  of  alleviating  his  disorder.  It  would  at 
any  rate  save  him  from  all  temptation  to  professional 
labor,  and  he  hoped  to  find  solace,  pleasure,  and 
health  in  a  quiet. residence  of  a  month  or  two  in  the 
south  of  England,  —  his  thoughts  turning  especially 
to  the  Isle  of  Wight.  He  accordingly  secured  a  pas- 
sage in  the  steamer  which  was  to  leave  Boston  about 
the  middle  of  May.  As  the  day  drew  near,  however, 
he  felt  himself  unequal  to  the  voyage,  and  accord- 
ingly deferred  his  departure.  The  delay  brought  no 
material  relief,  and  for  the  sake  of  greater  quiet,  and 
the  purer  air  of  the  country,  he  went,  on  the  24th  of 
May,  to  the  residence  of  his  son-in-law,  Joseph  M. 
Bell,  Esq.,  in  Dorchester.  The  month  that  he  re- 
mained in  this  delightful  suburban  retreat  was  full 
of  quiet  enjoyment.  His  appetite  good,  he  suffered 


368  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS  CHOATE.  [CHAP.  X. 

from  nothing  but  weakness  and  occasional  sudden  at- 
tacks of  nausea.  Every  day  he  drove,  sometimes  into 
town  to  get  books,  sometimes  into  the  country  over 
the  secluded  and  picturesque  suburban  roads  about 
Boston,  but  oftener  to  the  sea,  or  to  some  point  from 
which  he  could  get  a  view  of  the  ocean.  At  home, 
not  seeming  to  be  very  ill,  he  enjoyed  every  thing 
with  a  rare  and  intense  delight.  His  love  of  Nature, 
which  had  rather  slumbered  during  the  toils  and 
anxieties  of  an  active  life,  revived  again  as  he  looked 
upon  her,  undisturbed  by  the  demands  of  a  jealous 
profession.  He  would  sit  for  hours  in  the  sun,  or 
under  the  shade  of  the  veranda,  or  a  tree  near  the 
house,  watching  the  distant  city,  or  the  smoke  curling 
up  from  far-off  chimney-tops,  or  the  operations  of 
husbandry  going  on  all  about  him,  or  listening  to 
favorite  authors,  or  to  music  which  he  loved.  Never 
had  he  seemed  to  enjoy  every  object  with  a  keener 
relish.  "  What  can  a  person  do,"  he  once  said,  after 
looking  long  at  a  beautiful  landscape,  "  life  is  not  long 
enough  — ."  He  still  made  some  attempt  at  a  method- 
ical arrangement  of  occupations.  The  early  hours  of 
the  day  were  devoted  to  the  Bible ;  then  came  the 
newspapers  ;  then  whatever  books  he  might  be  inter- 
ested in,  —  from  the  Works  of  Lord  Bacon  to  the  last 
Review,  —  several  different  works  usually  being  read 
in  the  course  of  the  morning.  During  this  time  he 
suffered  no  pain,  and  but  for  weakness  which  rendered 
it  a  labor  for  him  to  walk  the  length  of  the  yard,  or  to 
ascend  the  stairs,  he  seemed  as  much  like  himself  as 
ever.  He  saw  no  company,  not  being  able  to  endure 
the  fatigue  of  conversation,  or  dreading  interruption 
by  the  nausea.  But  with  his  family,  he  was  never 


1858-1859.]         PREPARATION  FOR   A   VOYAGE.  369 

more  affectionate  and  playful,  and  never  entered  with 
fuller  zest  into  their  occupations  and  enjoyments.  In 
the  mean  time  the  question  of  the  voyage  recurred, 
and  he  was  compelled  to  make  a  decision.  It  was 
evident  that  the  necessity  somewhat  weighed  upon 
his  mind,  and  that  it  was  almost  equally  difficult  for 
him  to  determine  to  stay  or  to  go.  His  disease  was  ob- 
scure ;  his  physicians  anticipated  no  injury  from  the 
voyage,  and  hoped  for  some  relief.  Three  steamers 
had  already  sailed  since  he  first  thought  of  going  ; 
and  it  was  evident,  if  he  hoped  for  benefit  from  a 
summer  in  England,  that  he  could  not  much  longer 
delay  his  departure.  His  reluctance  to  revoke  a  de- 
cision once  fairly  made,  —  especially  as  that  would 
seem  to  be  an  acknowledgment  of  an  illness  more 
severe  and  immediately  threatening  than  his  friends 
or,  perhaps,  himself  had  allowed,  —  the  prospect  of 
rest,  the  hope  of  alleviation  and  some  enjoyment,  and 
possibly  of  recruiting,  —  all  urged  him  to  carry  out 
his  plan.  At  the  same  time,  — and  this,  perhaps,  was 
the  slight  consideration  which  turned  the  scale,  —  he 
knew  that  Halifax  was  less  than  two  days'  sail  from 
Boston,  and  that  if  the  voyage  proved  disagreeable, 
or  any  way  unfavorable,  it  was  easy  to  cut  it  short 
and  return.  Preparations  were  accordingly  made  with 
apparent  cheerfulness,  though  with  a  latent  sadness 
and  misgiving.  Books  were  chosen,  he  himself  mak- 
ing out  the  following  list :  The  Bible  ;  Daily  Food  ; 
Luther  on  the  Psalms ;  Hengstenberg's  Psalms ; 
Lewis's  Six  Days  of  Creation  ;  Owen  on  Mark  ;  The 
Iliad ;  The  Georgics  (Heyne's  Virgil)  ;  Bacon's  Ad- 
vancement of  Learning ;  Shakspeare;  Milton  ;  Cole- 
ridge ;  Thomson  ;  Macaulay's  History  ;  Anastasius  ; 

24 


370  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS  CHOATE.  [CHAP.  X. 

The  Crescent  and  the  Cross.  A  few  farewells  were 
said,  and  a  few  farewell  notes  written,  breathing  of 
more,  as  it  now  seems,  than  a  temporary  separation. 
The  following,  to  the  Hon.  Charles  Eames,  of  Washing- 
ton, and  another  to  Mr.  Abbott,  the  District  Attorney 
for  Essex,  were  written  the  day  before  he  sailed :  — 

"BOSTON,  Tuesday,  June  28,  1859. 

"  MY  DEAR  SIR,  —  I  borrow  .my  son's  hand  to  grasp  yours 
and  Mrs.  Eames's  with  the  friendship  of  many  years,  and  on 
the  eve  of  a  departure  in  search  of  better  health.     God  bless 
you  till  I  return,  and  whether  I  return. 
"  Yours  very  sincerely, 

"  R.  CHOATE,  JR.,  for  RUFUS  CHOATE. 
"HoN  CHARLES  EAMES." 


"HoN.  A.  A.  ABBOTT.  BOSTON,  Tuesday  afternoon,  June  28  [1859]. 

"  MY  DEAR  SIR,  —  It  would  puzzle  a  Philadelphia  doctor 
to  say  whether  I  am  intrinsically  better  than  when  I  saw 
you  last,  but  I  am  quite  competent  to  pronounce  for  myself 
that  I  love  and  esteem  you,  and  Brother  Lord,  and  Brother 
Huntington,  quite  as  much  as  ever,  and  for  quite  as  much 
reason.  Pray  accept  for  yourself,  and  give  to  them  all,  my 
love,  and  be  sure  that  if  I  live  to  return,  it  will  be  with  un- 
abated regard  for  all  of  you. 

"  I  am  yours  most  affectionately, 

"  RUFUS  CHOATE,  by  R.  C.,  JR." 

On  the  29th  of  June,  he  went  on  board  The  Europa, 
Capt.  Leitch,  accompanied  by  the  members  of  his 
family  and  a  few  friends,  and  immediately  lay  down 
on  the  sofa  in  his  state-room.  The  scene  was  neces- 
sarily a  sad  one,  yet  he  was  quite  calm  and  seemed 
better  than  he  had  done,  retaining  his  natural  playful- 
ness, speaking  jocosely  of  the  smallness  of  his  recep- 
tion-room in  which  so  many  were  assembled,  yet,  with 
a  peculiar  tenderness,  wishing  to  keep  them  all  near 
him  to  the  last. 


1858-1859.]          LETTER    OF   GEO.    S.    HILLARD.  371 

When  his  friends  left  him  as  the  hour  for  sailing 
drew  near,  mindful  of  the  responsibility  that  might 
seem  to  devolve  on  his  medical  attendants,  he  sent 
word  by  his  daughter,  Mrs.  Bell,  to  Dr.  Putnam,  his 
physician,  that  "  whatever  might  be  the  event,  he  was 
satisfied  that  every  thing  had  been  done  for  the  best." 
During  the  voyage  to  Halifax  he  lay  in  his  state-room 
still,  almost  like  marble,  and  with  no  restlessness  of 
body  or  mind,  conversing  but  little,  and  suffering 
somewhat  from  sea-sickness.  On  Thursday  a  bad 
symptom  showed  itself,  in  the  swelling  of  his  hands. 
The  ship's  surgeon,  Dr.  Bry,  and  another  physician  on 
board,  Dr.  Tyler,  of  Brookfield,  were  consulted,  and 
came  to  the  conclusion  that  it  was  hazardous  for  him 
to  proceed,  as,  in  their  opinion,  the  excitement  at- 
tendant upon  any  accident,  or  a  severe  storm,  might 
cause  death  at  once.  To  the  advice  tendered  by  them 
and  other  friends  on  board,  after  a  little  hesitation, 
he  assented,  apparently  glad  of  a  chance  of  relief,  he 
was  so  weary. 

The  letter  of  a  fellow-passenger,  Hon.  George  S. 
Hillard,  describes  the  circumstances  of  the  midnight 
landing  too  graphically  to  be  omitted  or  forgotten  in 
this  narrative.  "  From  the  moment  I  first  looked 
upon  him,  on  the  morning  of  the  day  that  we  sailed," 
says  Mr.  Hillard,  writing  from  England,  after  hearing 
of  his  death,  "  I  felt  assured  that  the  hand  of  death 
was  on  him.  His  berth  was  next  to  mine,  and  I  saw 
him  many  times  during  the  short  period  he  remained 
on  board.  He  was  always  lying  at  full  length  upon 
the  sofa,  and  perfectly  quiet,  though  not  reading  or 
listening  to  reading.  This  in  itself,  in  one  with  so 
active  a  brain  and  restless  an  organization  as  his,  was 


372  MEMOIR   OF  RIIFUS   CHOATE.  [CHAP.  X. 

rather  an  ominous  sign.  In  the  brief  moments  of  in- 
tercourse I  had  with  him,  the  feminine  sweetness  and 
gentleness  of  manner  which  always  characterized  him 
was  very  marked  and  very  touching.  The  determina- 
tion that  he  should  stop  at  Halifax  was  come  to  before 
dinner  on  the  30th,  and  all  preparations  were  duly 
made  to  have  him  landed  so  soon  as  we  should 
reach  the  port.  This  was  not  accomplished  until  mid- 
night ;  the  night  was  very  dark,  and  all  that  we  could 
see  of  the  town  was  a  mass  of  indistinct  gloom,  dotted 
here  and  there  with  twinkling  lights.  We  took  on 
board  a  large  number  of  passengers,  and  you  can  well 
imagine  the  distracting  hurry  and  confusion  of  such 
a  scene ;  the  jostling  of  porters  and  luggage,  the 
trampling  of  restless  feet,  and  all  the  while  the  escape- 
pipe  driving  one  into  madness  with  its  ear-piercing 
hiss.  Mr.  Choate  walked  to  his  carriage,  leaning 
heavily  on  my  arm,  —  his  son's  attention  being  ab- 
sorbed by  the  care  of  the  luggage.  He  moved  slowly 
and  with  some  difficulty,  taking  very  short  steps. 
Two  carriages  had  been  engaged,  by  some  misunder- 
standing, but,  on  account  of  the  luggage,  it  was  found 
convenient  to  retain  them  both.  Mr.  Choate  was  put 
into  one  of  them,  alone,  without  any  incumbrance  of 
trunk  or  bag,  and  his  son  with  the  luggage  occupied 
the  other.  When  the  moment  for  driving  off  came,  I 
could  not  bear  to  see  him  carried  out  into  the  unknown 
darkness  unaccompanied,  and  I  asked  Capt.  Leitch, 
who  was  with  us,  —  and  whose  thoughtful  kindness 
I  shall  never  forget,  —  how  long  a  time  I  might  have 
to  drive  up  to  the  town ;  and  he  replied,  half  an  hour. 
Hearing  that  the  inn,  or  boarding-house,  to  which  we 
were  directed,  was  but  half  a  mile  off,  I  entered  the 


1858-1859.]  LANDING   AT   HALIFAX.  373 

coach,  sat  by  his  side,  and  off  we  went  through  the 
silent  and  gloomy  streets.  The  half-mile  stretched 
out  into  a  long  mile,  and  when  we  had  reached  the 
house,  and  I  had  deposited  Mr.  Choate  on  a  sofa  in 
the  sitting-room,  the  landlady  appalled  me  by  saying 
that  she  had  not  an  unoccupied  bed  in  the  house,  and 
could  not  accommodate  him.  Her  words  fell  upon  my 
heart  like  a  blow.  ...  In  the  mean  time  the  inexorable 
moments  were  slipping  away,  and  I  was  compelled  to 
leave  the  house.  I  heard  an  airy  voice  calling  me  out 
of  the  darkness,  and  I  could  not  by  a  moment  enlarge 
the  captain's  leave.  I  left  Mr.  Choate  upon  the  sofa, 
pale  and  exhausted,  but  patient  and  uncomplaining, 
his  luggage  in  the  street  at  the  door,  and  his  son  at 
that  midnight  hour  wandering  about  the  streets  of 
Halifax,  seeking  a  temporary  shelter  for  a  dying 
father,  with  what  result  I  have  not  yet  heard.  What 
with  the  sense  of  hurry,  the  irritation  of  this  mis- 
chance, and  the  consciousness  that  I  had  seen  my 
eminent  friend  for  the  last  time,  I  drove  back  to  the 
boat  with  a  very  sore  heart.  There  are  some  pas- 
sages in  our  lives  .which  stamp  themselves  upon  the 
memory  with  peculiar  force  and  distinctness.  Such 
were  my  midnight  experiences  at  Halifax  ;  if  I  should 
live  to  be  a  hundred  years  old,  they  would  be  as  fresh 
before  the  mind's  eye  as  they  are  now." 

After  Mr.  Hillard  left,  a  room  was  secured  in 
what  proved  to  be  a  very  pleasant  boarding-house, 
not  far  distant  from  the  one  to  which  he  first  drove. 
It  was  in  the  third  story,  and  overlooked  the  harbor. 
Mr.  Choate  was  too  weak  to  ascend  the  stairs  that 
night^1  but  slept  well  in  a  lower  room,  and  the  next 

1  He  was  so  feeble  that,  in  going  from  one  house  to  the  other,  he 
fell  forward  in  the  carriage  and  was  not  able  to  raise  himself. 


374  MEMOIR   OF  BUFUS   CHOATE.  [CHAP.  X. 

morning  was  able  to  mount  to  his  own.  He  immedi- 
ately took  to  his  bed,  which  he  never  again  left.  At 
the  suggestion  of  the  American  Consul,  Dr.  Domville, 
surgeon  on  board  the  flag-ship  of  the  Admiral  then  in 
command  of  the  British  fleet  on  the  North  American 
station,  was  called  in,  and  through  his  prescriptions 
the  most  unfavorable  symptoms  were  soon  alleviated. 
From  day  to  day  he  remained  nearly  the  same,  rising 
from  his  bed  only  to  have  it  made,  talking  but  little, 
watching  —  with  the  old,  habitual  love  of  the  sea  — 
as  he  could  without  raising  his  head  from  the  pillow, 
the  unloading  of  the  ships,  and  the  vessels  moving  in 
the  harbor.  "  If  a  schooner  or  sloop  goes  by,"  he 
once  said,  when  dropping  into  a  doze,  "  don't  disturb 
me,  but  if  there  is  a  square-rigged  vessel,  wake  me 
up."  By  night  his  son  sat  by  his  side  till  he  was 
sound  asleep,  when,  by  his  special  request,  he  was 
left  alone,  and  usually  slept  well.  Only  one  night 
did  he  seem  at  all  unlike  himself,  when  being  op- 
pressed for  breath,  he  seemed  to  imagine  that  people 
were  crowding  round  the  bed.  His  books  were  read 
to  him  :  Shakspeare,  (The  Tempest),  Bacon's  Ad- 
vancement of  Learning,  Macaulay's  History,  The  Six 
Days  of  Creation,  Gray's  Poem  on  Adversity  (he 
selecting  it),  Luther  on  the  Psalms,  and  more 
variously  and  constantly  than  all,  the  Bible.  He 
talked  much  of  home,  making  little  plans  about  the 
best  way  of  getting  there  ;  talked  of  sending  for  his 
family  to  come  to  him,  but  thought  he  should  recruit 
so  soon  that  it  would  be  of  no  use  ;  talked  about 
Essex,  of  wanting  to  go  down  there  and  having  a 
boat  built  for  him,  discussing  her  size  and  rig.*  He 
was  constantly  cheerful,  pleasant,  and  hopeful,  and 


1858-1859.]  DEATH.  375 

on  the  12th  of  July,  according  to  Dr.  Domville,  ap- 
peared better  than  on  any  previous  day,  and  was  led 
to  indulge  the  hope  that  he  would  shortly  be  suffi- 
ciently restored  to  make  a  journey  homeward  or  else- 
where. It  was  otherwise  ordered.  The  great  shadow 
was  fast  sweeping  over  him. 

At  his  usual  hour  on  that  day,  about  five  o'clock, 
he  ate  as  hearty  a  dinner  as  usual,  bolstered  up  in 
bed,  and  conversing  at  the  same  time  with  his  natural 
vivacity.  Shortly  after  he  had  finished,  his  son,  who 
was  in  the  room,  was  startled  by  hearing  him  asking 
for  something  indistinctly  and  in  a  peculiar  tone  ;  and 
going  to  him,  inquired  if  he  did  not  feel  well.  He 
said,  No  —  that  he  felt  very  faint.  These  were  the 
last  words  he  ever  uttered.  He  was  raised  and 
supported  in  the  bed ;  the  remedies  at  hand  were 
freely  applied,  and  the  physician  at  once  summoned. 
But  the  end  was  at  hand.  His  eyes  closed,  opened 
again,  but  with  no  apparent  recognition  ;  a  slight 
struggle  passed  over  his  frame,  and  consciousness  was 
extinguished  for  ever.  A  heavy  breathing  alone 
showed  that  life  remained.  It  continued  till  twenty 
minutes  before  two  o'clock  on  the  morning  of  July 
18,  when  it  ceased,  and  all  was  still.1 

Among  strangers  as  he  was,  his  illness  had  awakened 
a  general  sympathy,  and  prompted  the  kindest  atten- 
tions. "All  classes,  from  the  Governor,  Lord  Mul- 
grave,  down,  proffered  during  his  illness  all  that  their 
several  resources  afforded ; "  and  his  death,  so  sudden 

1  An  autopsy,  made  after  the  remains  had  reached  Boston,  showed 
that  the  heart  and  lungs  were  entirely  healthy.  The  kidneys  were 
affected  with  what  is  known  to  physicians  as  "Bright's  disease."  The 
brain  was  not  examined. 


376  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS  CHOATE.  [CHAP.  X. 

and  unexpected,  "  cast  a  gloom  over  the  entire  com- 
munity." l  A  meeting  of  the  Bench  and  Bar  of  the 
city,  presided  over  by  the  venerable  Chief  Justice,  Sir 
Brenton  Haliburton,  was  immediately  held  in  testi- 
mony of  respect  and  sympathy.  The  sad  tidings 
were  at  once  spread  by  telegraph  over  the  United 
States,  and  everywhere  evoked  a  similar  response. 
The  press,  of  all  parties  and  persuasions,  and  in  every 
part  of  the  country,  was  unanimous  in  its  tribute  of 
respect.  Meetings  were  held  in  many  cities  and  towns 
in  many  States,  to  give  utterance  to  the  general 
sorrow.  Among  the  letters  which  came  from  various 
parts  of  the  country,  the  following  was  received  from 
President  Buchanan ;  — 

"WASHINGTON,  18th  July,  1859. 

"  MY  DEAR  SIR,  —  I  deeply  regret  the  death  of  Mr. 
Choate.  I  consider  his  loss,  at  the  present  time,  to  be  a 
great  public  misfortune.  He  was  an  unselfish  patriot,  — 
devoted  to  the  Constitution  and  the  Union ;  and  the  moral 
influence  of  his  precept  and  his  example  would  have  contrib- 
uted much  to  restore  the  ancient  peace  and  harmony  among 
the  different  members  of  the  Confederacy.  In  him  '  the 
elements  were  so  combined,'  that  all  his  acquaintances  became 
his  devoted  friends.  So  far  as  I  know,  even  party  malev- 
olence spared  him.  He  was  pure  and  incorruptible  ;  and  in 
all  our  intercourse  I  have  never  known  him  to  utter  or  in- 
sinuate a  sentiment  respecting  public  affairs  which  was  not 
of  a  high  tone  and  elevated  character. 
"  Yours  very  respectfully, 

"  JAMES  BUCHANAN." 

But  nowhere  was  there  a  deeper  or  more  prevailing 
feeling  than  among  the  members  of  the  Essex  Bar, 
with  whom  he  began  and  with  whom  he  closed  his 
labors,  and  in  Boston,  where  his  greatest  legal 
triumphs  were  achieved.  Many  clergymen  noticed 

1  Letter  from  Dr.  Domville. 


1858-1859.]        ADDRESS  OF  HON.  C.  G.  LORING.  377 

the  loss  in  their  public  discourses.  The  Mercantile 
Library  Association  ;  the  Young  Men's  Democratic 
Club ;  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society  ;  the 
Municipal  Corporation  ;  the  Courts  of  the  State,  and 
of  the  United  States ;  the  Faculty  and  Alumni  of 
Dartmouth  College,  where  he  was  graduated  just 
forty  years  before  ;  the  Bar  of  New  York,  and  many 
other  public  bodies,  met  to  express  their  sense  of  the 
loss.  The  Suffolk  Bar  at  once  appointed  a  committee 
to  draw  up  and  present  a  series  of  resolutions  ;  and 
seldom  has  there  been  expression  of  sincerer  or  deeper 
grief  than  at  the  meeting  which  followed.  His 
brethren  of  the  Bar  spoke  with  suffused  eye  and 
tremulous  lip.  Of  the  many  addresses  and  commu- 
nications, difficult  as  it  is  to  discriminate  between 
them  on  the  score  of  fitness  and  general  excellence, 
a  few  may  be  selected  as  indicative  of  the  spirit  of  all. 

FROM  THE  ADDRESS   OF   HON.   CHARLES   G.  LORING,   AT  A 
MEETING  OF  THE  SUFFOLK  BAR. 

"ME.  CHAIRMAN,  —  I  am  instructed  by  the  com- 
mittee appointed  at  a  meeting  of  which  this  is  an 
adjournment,  to  present  for  its  consideration  a  series 
of  resolutions,  the  adoption  of  which  they  recommend 
as  commemorative  of  the  sense  entertained  by  the 
members  of  the  Suffolk  Bar,  of  the  afflicting  event 
which  has  recently  befallen  them.  And  in  discharg- 
ing that  duty,  I  crave  indulgence,  as  one  of  the  eldest 
among  them,  to  say  a  few  words  upon  the  sad  theme 
which  fills  our  hearts,  though  the  state  of  my  health 
would  forbid  any  elaborate  attempt  at  adequate 
description  of  the  marvellous  combination  of  genius, 
learning,  and  ability,  characteristic  of  our  departed 


378  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS   CHOATE.  [CHAP.  X. 

brother,  or  any  fitting  eulogium  upon  his  life  and 
character. 

"  Of  his  gifts  and  attainments  as  a  lawyer  and  as  an 
orator,  not  only  this  bar,  but  the  national  forum  and 
the  legislative  halls  of  the  Commonwealth,  and  of  the 
United  States,  have  been  witnesses  ;  while  his  scholas- 
tic efforts,  on  many  varying  occasions,  have  been  heard 
and  read  by  admiring  multitudes,  whose  remembrance 
of  them  is  still  fresh  and  full.  And  if  —  not  relying 
only  upon  our  own  affectionate  and  perhaps  partial 
judgments  —  we  may  trust  the  general  expression  of 
the  press  throughout  the  land,  it  is  no  unbecoming 
exaggeration  to  say  that  in  the  death  of  our  friend  the 
nation  has  lost  one  of  the  most  gifted  and  distinguished 
lawyers  and  orators,  and  one  of  the  most  refined  and 
accomplished  scholars,  that  have  adorned  its  forensic, 
legislative,  or  literary  annals. 

"  Having  been  for  more  than  twenty  years  after  Mr. 
Ghoate  came  to  this  bar,  his  antagonist  in  forensic 
struggles,  at  the  least,  I  believe,  as  frequently  as  any 
other  member  of  it,  I  may  well  be  competent  to  bear 
witness  to  his  peculiar  abilities,  resources,  and  man- 
ners in  professional  service.  And  having,  in  the 
varied  experiences  of  nearly  forty  years,  not  infre- 
quently encountered  some  of  the  giants  of  the  law, 
whose  lives  and  memories  have  contributed  to  render 
this  bar  illustrious  throughout  the  land,  —  among 
whom  I  may  include  the  honored  names  of  Prescott, 
Mason,  Hubbard,  Webster,  and  Dexter,  and  others 
among  the  dead,  and  those  of  others  yet  with  us,  to 
share  in  the  sorrows  of  this  hour,  —  I  do  no  injustice 
to  the  living  or  the  dead  in  saying,  that  for  the  pecu- 
liar powers  desirable  for  a  lawyer  and  advocate,  for 


1858-1859.]      ADDRESS   OF   HON.   C.   G.   LORING.  379 

combination  of  accurate  memory,  logical  acumen, 
vivid  imagination,  profound  learning  in  the  law, 
exuberance  of  literary  knowledge  and  command  of 
language,  united  with  strategic  skill,  I  should  place 
him  at  the  head  of  all  whom  I  have  ever  seen  in  the 
management  of  a  cause  at  the  bar. 

"  No  one  who  has  not  been  frequently  his  antago- 
nist in  intricate  and  balanced  cases,  can  have  adequate 
conception  of  his  wonderful  powers  and  resources; 
and  especially  in  desperate  emergencies,  when  his 
seemingly  assured  defeat  has  terminated  in  victory. 

"  His  remembrance  of  every  fact,  suggestion,  or 
implication  involved  in  the  testimony,  of  even  the  re- 
motest admission  by  his  adversary,  —  his  ready  knowl- 
edge and  application  of  every  principle  of  law  called 
for  at  the  moment,  —  his  long  forecast  and  ever  watch- 
ful attention  to  every  new  phase  of  the  case,  however 
slight,  —  his  incredible  power  of  clear  and  brilliant 
illustration,  —  his  unexampled  exuberance  of  rich  and 
glowing  language, — his  wonderfully  methodic  ar- 
rangement, where  method  would  best  serve  him,  and 
no  less  wonderful  power  of  dislocation  and  confusion 
of  forces,  when  method  would  not  serve  him, — his 
incredible  ingenuity  in  retreating  when  seemingly 
annihilated,  and  the  suddenness  and  impetuosity  with 
which,  changing  front,  he  returned  to  the  charge,  or 
rallied  in  another  and  unexpected  direction,  —  and 
the  brilliant  fancy,  the  peerless  beauty,  and  fasci- 
nating glow  of  language  and  sentiment,  with  which, 
when  law  and  facts  and  argument  were  all  against 
him,  he  could  raise  his  audience  above  them  all  as 
things  of  earth,  while  insensibly  persuading  it  that 
the  decision  should  rest  upon  considerations  to  be 


380  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS  CHOATE.  [CHAP.  X. 

found  in  higher  regions,  and  that  a  verdict  in  his  favor 
was  demanded  by  some  transcendent  equity  inde- 
pendent of  them  all,  at  times  surpassed  all  previous 
conceptions  of  human  ability. 

"  In  manner  and  deportment  at  the  bar,  as  every- 
where, our  deceased  brother  was  not  only  unexcep- 
tionable, but  an  eminent  example  of  what  a  lawyer 
should  be.  Always  dignified  and  graceful  in  his 
bearing  towards  his  professional  brethren,  and  defer- 
ential to  the  court,  and  always  self-possessed  in  the 
stormiest  seas,  —  his  intensity  of  language  being,  as  I 
ever  thought,  the  effect  of  a  strongly  excited  imagina- 
tion, combined  with  peculiar  nervous  energy,  rather 
than  arising  from  otherwise  deep  emotions  or  excited 
feelings  —  he  rarely  permitted  himself  to  indulge  in 
personalities,  and  never  in  those  of  an  offensive  and 
degrading  nature,  the  indulgence  of  which  is  ever  to 
be  deplored,  as  alike  discreditable  to  the  individual 
and  the  profession,  of  which,  for  the  time  being, 
every  advocate  should  feel  himself  to  be  the  public 
representative. 

"  Nor  can  I  leave  this  theme  without  thus  publicly 
reaffirming,  what  it  has  been  my  constant  pleasure  to 
say  of  him  throughout  all  our  long  years  of  exasperat- 
ing conflicts,  that  he  was  the  best  tempered  and  most 
amiable  man  in  controversy  whom  I  ever  encountered; 
nor  will  I  hesitate  to  add  that  his  example  has  at 
times  winged  the  arrow  of  self-reproach  that  it  was 
not  better  followed. 

"  Of  Mr.  Choate's  power  and  attainments  as  a 
scholar,  so  conspicuous  and  extensive,  I  forbear  to 
speak  further  than  to  say  that  the  bar  of  the  whole 
country  owes  to  him  the  debt  of  gratitude  for  exhib- 


1858-1859.]        REMARKS  OF  HON.  GEORGE  LUNT.  381 

iting  an  example  so  illustrious  of  the  strength,  dignity, 
and  beauty  which  forensic  discussion  may  draw  from 
the  fields  of  literature  and  art,  with  whose  treasures 
he  often  adorned  his  arguments  in  rich  exuberance, 
though  never  with  the  slightest  savor  of  pedantry  or 
affectation. 

"  We  have  fought  many  hardly  contested  forensic 
fields,  but  ever  met,  as  I  trust  and  believe,  on  neutral 
ground,  in  mutual,  cordial  good-will  —  and  many  are 
the  delightful  hours  I  have  passed  in  his  society  —  in 
the  enjoyment  of  his  genial  nature,  fascinating  exuber- 
ance of  fancy  and  learning,  and  exquisite  wit ;  but  the 
silver  cord  is  loosed,  the  golden  bowl  is  broken,  and 
the  wheel  broken  at  the  cistern  ;  and  it  is  only  left  for 
me  to  lay  a  worthless,  fading  chaplet  on  his  grave." 

Hon.  George  Lunt,  chairman  of  the  sub-committee 
of  the  Suffolk  Bar,  presented  the  following  resolutions, 
prefacing  them  with  a  few  remarks,  in  the  course  of 
which  he  said,  — 

"  Of  those  who  have  cultivated  deliberative  eloquence  as 
an  art,  no  doubt  there  have  been  others  his  equals,  possibly  in 
some  respects  his  superiors.  And  though  his  style  of  oratory, 
in  its  composition,  could  scarcely  be  compared  with  any  thing 
except  the  grand  and  lofty  periods  of  Milton  in  his  works  of 
prose,  yet  it  had  many  of  the  characteristics  of  Burke,  whom 
he  admired,  and  of  another  great  man  of  our  own  country  — 
Fisher  Ames  —  whom  no  successor  has  surpassed.  But  at  the 
bar,  when  and  where  was  there  ever  one  like  him  in  the  union 
of  all  things  which  constituted  his  power,  and  gave  him  that 
sort  of  magnetic  influence,  felt  by  all  who  approached  him, 
and  which  courts,  juries,  and  audiences  so  often  found  irresis- 
tible ?  It  was  in  this,  I  feel  disposed  to  say,  that  Mr.  Choate 
was  the  most  peculiar,  —  that  his  soul  imbued  his  thoughts 
and  gave  them  life  and  action,  —  and  to  him  more  than  to 
any  man,  and  now  with  sad  significance,  are  applicable  those 
descriptive  lines  of  Dryden  :  — 


382  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS  CHOATE.  [CHAP.  X. 

'  A  fiery  soul  that,  working  out  its  way, 
Fretted  the  pigmy  body  to  decay, 
And  o'er-informed  the  tenement  of  clay.' 

For  his  soul  became  incorporated,  as  he  spoke  with  his  living 
presence,  and  he  had  enough  of  the  spiritual  element  for  a 
whole  generation  of  ordinary  members  of  the  bar. 
"  With  your  permission  I  will  read  the 

RESOLUTIONS. 

"  Resolved,  That  the  members  of  this  bar,  submissively 
and  solemnly  acknowledging  the  dispensation  of  Divine 
Providence,  in  removing  by  death  their  late  eminent  leader 
and  beloved  associate,  the  Honorable  Rufus  Choate,  —  recog- 
nize that  mournful  event  with  emotions  of  the  profoundest 
sorrow,  and  sincerely  feel  that  no  language  could  adequately 
express  their  exalted  estimation  of  his  character  as  a  lawyer, 
a  citizen,  and  a  man,  or  their  affectionate  respect  and  venera- 
tion for  his  memory. 

"  Resolved,  That  the  professional  character  of  our  departed 
brother  exhibited  the  rarest  and  most  admirable  qualities, 
seldom  if  ever  before  so  singularly  united  in  the  same  person  ; 
that  while  unrivalled  in  all  the  learning  of  the  law,  entirely 
familiar  with  the  principles,  the  doctrines,  and  the  philosophy 
of  the  science  to  which  his  life  was  devoted,  and  thoroughly 
acquainted  with  the  minutest  requirements  of  its  practice,  the 
manly  strength  and  capacity  of  his  intellect  were  combined 
with  a  grace,  an  elegance,  and  a  brilliancy  of  conception  and 
expression  totally  unexampled ;  that  while  he  brought  to  the 
pursuits  of  his  profession  the  most  extraordinary  quickness 
and  clearness  of  apprehension,  and  the  best  faculties  of  sound 
and  solid  reasoning,  these  incomparable  powers  were  bright- 
ened and  enriched  by  a  facility  and  fertility  of  illustration  no 
less  remarkable,  drawn  from  nature,  art,  literature,  the  re- 
sources of  his  own  imagination,  and  the  Scriptures  which  he 
so  loved  and  reverenced;  and  by  a  spontaneous  flow  of  im- 
passioned and  matchless  eloquence,  which  animated,  instructed, 
and  inspired  reason  —  captivating  it,  yet  subject  to  it  —  using 
the  noblest  language  in  which  thought  could  clothe  itself,  va- 
ried often,  and  enlivened  by  a  quaint  and  original  felicity  of 
expression,  which  cheered  the  gravest  proceedings,  while  it 
illuminated  his  meaning  —  showing  him,  confessedly,  among 
all  men,  the  very  genius  of  the  bar ;  yet  with  all  its  amplest 


1858-1859.]        RESOLUTIONS  OF  SUFFOLK  BAR.  383 

treasuries  of  knowledge  at  his  command,  by  the  exercise  of  a 
power  of  application,  not  usually  attributed  to  genius,  and  by 
habits  of  careful  and  laborious  study,  in  which  no  man  sur- 
passed and  few  equalled  him  —  manifesting  a  real  and  most 
earnest  sympathy  in  every  case  entrusted  to  him,  to  the  small- 
est indifferently  with  the  largest,  by  a  sort  of  resolute  instinct 
of  nature,  but  which  always  co-operated  with  principle,  and 
was  sustained  by  it  —  thus,  always  doing  justice  to  his  client, 
himself,  and  the  occasion,  and  never  found  even  partially 
unprepared  —  but  before  a  single  judge,  with  no  audience, 
upon  a  question  claiming  little  public  interest,  as  learned,  as 
eloquent,  as  choice,  copious,  and  accurate  in  language,  and 
equally  as  '  fervent  in  business,'  as  if  surrounded  by  an  admir- 
ing crowd,  so  often  kindled  by  the  thrilling  utterance  of  his 
lips  —  for  he  was  still  there,  doing  his  duty  —  his  vigor,  his 
fire,  his  zeal  ever  the  same  —  so  that  it.  was  the  spirit  of  the 
man  within  which  led  him  on,  and  made  him  true  to  all  time 
and  place,  and  thus  able  to  turn  time,  occasion,  circumstance, 
all  things,  to  the  immediate  and  overpowering  purpose  which 
impelled  him,  as  few  men  are  impelled,  to  do  with  his  might 
whatever  his  hands  found  to  do. 

"  Resolved,  That  while  looking  to  him  constantly  as  one  of 
the  great  lights  of  the  profession  —  honoring  him  without 
reservation  as  its  unquestioned  leader,  with  recollections  full 
of  that  enchanting  eloquence  which  always  fascinated  by  a 
freshness,  a  brilliancy,  an  ardor,  and  an  originality  peculiarly 
its  own,  and  of  a  learning  equally  sound,  extensive,  and 
ready  —  always  gathering  new  stores  by  the  unceasing  study 
and  reflection  of  every  day  —  our  long  association  with  him, 
in  the  kindest,  most  agreeable,  and  most  friendly  relations,  as 
members  of  the  bar,  and  in  the  ordinary  intercourse  of  life, 
recalls  the  impression  of  his  personal  characteristics  with 
vivid  distinctness  and  poignancy  at  this  moment  of  severe  and 
unaffected  grief ;  and  revives  him  in  our  memory  as,  of  all 
men  of  whom  we  have  known,  one  of  the  most  truly  amiable 
and  estimable ;  and  with  hearts  overflowing  with  the  sense 
of  that  amenity  and  unforced  courtesy  —  now  buried  with  him 
for  ever  —  so  graceful  and  uniform,  since  it  was  a  part  of  his 
very  nature  —  of  that  transparent  tenderness  of  feeling  pecu- 
liarly distinguishing  him  and  an  unassuming  kindness  of  de- 
meanor, rendered  to  the  lowest  equally  with  the  highest  in 
his  company,  —  showing  him  humane  and  true  to  humanity 
in  the  broadest  acceptation  of  the  word,  as  he  was  profoundly 


384  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS   CHOATE.  [CHAP.  X. 

interested  in  all  which  might  concern  a  man  —  and  though 
without  any  of  the  familiarity  which  lessens,  yet  equally  at 
home  with  the  humblest  and  most  cultivated,  and  in  the  poor- 
est as  the  grandest  place ;  and  everywhere  and  in  all  com- 
panies free  from  the  slightest  indelicacy  of  expression,  and 
apparently  unconscious  of  it  by  a  certain  innate  nicety  of 
mind  —  and  gratefully  remembering  him  as  a  true  gentleman, 
because  gentle  both  by  nature  and  culture,  and  as  the  highest 
ornament  of  his  profession,  and  an  honor  to  his  race,  we 
cherish  his  memory  with  an  affection,  admiration,  and  respect, 
scarcely  to  be  disturbed  in  this  generation  by  another  exam- 
ple of  qualities  and  gifts  so  noble  and  extraordinary,  as  to 
make  him  in  many  singular  respects  —  in  genius,  learning, 
and  eloquence  —  in  perfection  of  the  reasoning  powers,  and 
taste,  fancy,  and  imaginative  faculties  not  often  in  concord 
with  them  ;  and  in  fidelity  to  his  client  and  his  cause  never 
excelled  —  justly  entitled  to  the  reputation,  likely  to  become 
still  more  extensive,  of  the  marvel  of  his  time. 

"  Resolved,  That,  while  the  decease  of  this  great  and  ex- 
cellent man  is  universally  regarded  by  this  community  as  an 
irreparable  calamity,  to  be  only  deepened  by  experience,  as 
we  become  more  and  more  sensible  of  a  vacant  place  so  diffi- 
cult worthily  to  fill,  —  the  loss  to  the  Commonwealth  and 
the  nation  cannot  be  too  keenly  deplored ;  that  as  a  citizen 
of  the  State  and  of  the  United  Republic,  his  whole  life 
evinced  that  wise  interest  in  and  generous  devotion  to  public 
affairs,  becoming  his  station,  profession,  character,  and  under- 
standing, —  discussing  them  before  the  people  on  suitable  oc- 
casions, with  a  spirit  and  a  power  of  thought  and  language 
seldom  equalled  —  thus  affording  the  strongest  and  surest 
pledge  of  an  honest  and  unflinching  patriotism,  which  won  for 
him,  even  from  those  hostile  to  his  opinions,  a  confidence  in 
his  political  integrity  seldom  felt  or  granted  to  a  statesman 
by  those  opposed  to  him ;  and  that  while  the  public  services 
rendered  by  him  in  the  past  entitle  his  memory  to  our 
veneration,  we  may  well  anticipate  future  exigencies  of  the 
country,  when  to  miss  the  invaluable  aid  of  such  an  illustrious 
counsellor,  guide,  and  example,  will  be  only  to  renew  our 
grief,  as  we  look  in  vain  for  that  steady  and  shining  light 
now  so  prematurely  and  sadly  extinguished. 

"  Resolved,  That  the  members  of  this  bar,  sorrowfully  and 
respectfully,  beg  leave  to  tender  to  the  bereaved  family  of 
their  lamented  friend  the  most  heartfelt  sentiments  of  condo- 


1858-1859.]          REMARKS   OF   R.   H.    DANA,   JR.  385 

lence  and  sympathy ;  and  feeling  that  the  occasion  rarely 
arises  in  which  private  grief  is  so  deeply  and  justly  shared  by 
all,  and  peculiarly  by  their  own  profession,  they  ask  permis- 
sion to  unite  with  the  family  of  their  departed  brother,  in 
attending  his  remains  to  their  last  earthly  resting-place. 

"  Resolved,  That  a  eulogy  be  pronounced  at  such  convenient 
time  as  may  be  hereafter  determined  upon,  and  that  Hon. 
Caleb  Cashing  be  invited  to  deliver  the  same  before  the  bar. 

"  Resolved,  That  these  resolutions  be  presented  to  the  Su- 
preme Judicial  Court  of  this  Commonwealth,  with  a  request 
that  they  be  entered  upon  its  records." 


REMARKS  OF  RICHARD  H.  DANA,  JR.,  ESQ. 

"  MR.  CHAIRMAN,  —  By  your  courtesy,  and  the 
courtesy  of  this  bar,  which  never  fails,  I  occup^  an 
earlier  moment  than  I  should  otherwise  be  entitled 
to ;  for  the  reason,  that  in  a  few  hours  I  shall  be 
called  upon  to  take  a  long  leave  of  the  bar  and  of  my 
home.  I  cannot  do  that,  Sir,  —  I  cannot  do  that, 
without  rising  to  say  one  word  of  what  I  know  and 
feel  upon  this  sad  loss. 

"  The  pressure  which  has  been  upon  me  in  the  last 
few  days  of  my  remaining  here  has  prevented  my 
making  that  kind  of  preparation  which  the  example 
of  him  whom  we  commemorate  requires  of  every  man 
about  to  address  a  fit  audience  upon  a  great  subject. 
I  can  only  speak  right  on  what  I  do  feel  and  know. 

" '  The  wine  of  life  is  drawn.'  The  '  golden  bowl 
is  broken.'  The  age  of  miracles  has  passed.  The  day 
of  inspiration  is  over.  The  Great  Conqueror,  unseen 
and  irresistible,  has  broken  into  our  temple  and  has 
carried  off  the  vessels  of  gold,  the  vessels  of  silver, 
the  precious  stones,  the  jewels,  and  the  ivory;  and, 
like  the  priests  of  the  Temple  of  Jerusalem,  after  the 

26 


386  MEMOIR   OF  RUFUS   CHOATE.  [CHAP.  X. 

invasion  from  Babylon,  we  must  content  ourselves, 
as  we  can,  with  vessels  of  wood  and  of  stone  and  of 
iron. 

"  With  such  broken  phrases  as  these,  Mr.  Chairman, 
perhaps  not  altogether  just  to  the  living,  we  endeavor 
to  express  the  emotions  natural  to  this  hour  of  our 
bereavement.  Talent,  industry,  eloquence,  and  learn- 
ing there  are  still,  and  always  will  be,  at  the  bar  of 
Boston.  But  if  I  say  that  the  age  of  miracles  has 
passed,  that  the  day  of  inspiration  is  over,  —  if  I  can- 
iiot  realize  that  in  this  place  where  we  now  are,  the 
cloth  of  gold  was  spread,  and  a  banquet  set  fit  for  the 
gods,  —  I  know,  Sir,  you  will  excuse  it.  Any  one 
who  has  lived  with  him  and  now  survives  him  will 
excuse  it,  —  any  one  who,  like  the  youth  in  Words- 
worth's ode, 

'by  the  vision  splendid, 
Is  on  his  way  attended, 
At  length  .  .  .  perceives  it  die  away, 
And  fade  into  the  light  of  common  day.' 

"Sir,  I  speak  for  myself,  —  I  have  no  right  to  speak 
for  others,  —  but  I  can  truly  say,  without  any  exag- 
geration, taking  for  the  moment  a  simile  from  that 
element  which  he  loved  as  much  as  I  love  it,  though 
it  rose  against  his  life  at  last,  —  that  in  his  presence  I 
felt  like  the  master  of  a  small  coasting  vessel,  that 
hugs  the  shore,  that  has  run  up  under  the  lee  to  speak 
a  great  homeward-bound  Indiaman,  freighted  with 
silks  and  precious  stones,  spices  and  costly  fabrics, 
with  sky-sails  and  studding-sails  spread  to  the  breeze, 
with  the  nation's  flag  at  her  mast-head,  navigated  by 
the  mysterious  science  of  the  fixed  stars,  and  not  un- 
prepared with  weapons  of  defence,  her  decks  peopled 


1858-1859.]         REMARKS    OF  R.    H.    DANA,   JR.  387 

with  men  in  strange  costumes,  speaking  of  strange 
climes  and  distant  lands. 

"  All  loved  him,  especially  the  young.  He  never 
asserted  himself,  or  claimed  precedence,  to  the  injury 
of  any  man's  feelings.  Who  ever  knew  him  to  lose 
temper?  Who  ever  heard  from  him  an  unkind  word? 
And  this  is  all  the  more  strange  from  the  fact  of  his 
great  sensitiveness  of  temperament. 

"  His  splendid  talents  as  an  orator  need  no  com- 
mendation here.  The  world  knows  so  much.  The 
world  knows  perfectly  well  that  juries  after  juries 
have  returned  their  verdicts  for  Mr.  Choate's  clients, 
and  the  Court  has  entered  them  upon  the  issues. 
The  world  knows  how  he  electrified  vast  audiences 
in  his  more  popular  addresses;  but,  Sir,  the  world  has 
not  known,  though  it  knows  better  now  than  it  did, 
—  and  the  testimony  of  those  better  competent  than 
I  am  will  teach  it, — that  his  power  here  rested  not 
merely  nor  chiefly  upon  his  eloquence,  but  rested 
principally  upon  his  philosophic  and  dialectic  power. 
He  was  the  greatest  master  of  logic  we  had  amongst 
us.  No  man  detected  a  fallacy  so  quickly,  or  exposed 
it  so  felicitously  as  he,  whether  in  scientific  terms  to 
the  bench,  or  popularly  to  the  jury ;  and  who  could 
play  with  a  fallacy  as  he  could  ?  Ask  those  venerated 
men  who  compose  our  highest  tribunal,  with  whom 
all  mere  rhetoric  is  worse  than  wasted  when  their 
minds  are  bent  to  the  single  purpose  of  arriving  at 
the  true  results  of  their  science,  —  ask  them  wherein 
lay  the  greatest  power  of  Rufus  Choate,  and  they 
will  tell  you  it  lay  in  his  philosophy,  his  logic,  and  his 
learning. 

"  He  was,  Sir,  in  two  words,  a  unique  creation.   He 


388  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS  CHOATE.  [CHAP.  X. 

was  a  strange  product  of  New  England.  Benjamin 
Franklin,  John  Adams,  Samuel  Dexter,  Daniel  Web- 
ster, and  Jeremiah  Mason  seem  to  be  the  natural 
products  of  the  soil ;  but  to  me  this  great  man  always 
seemed  as  not  having  an  origin  here  in  New  England, 
but  as  if,  by  the  side  of  our  wooden  buildings,  or  by 
the  side  of  our  time-enduring  granite,  there  had  risen, 
like  an  exhalation,  some  Oriental  structure,  with  the 
domes  and  glittering  minarets  of  the  Eastern  world. 
Yet  this  beautiful  fabric,  so  aerial,  was  founded  upon 
a  rock.  We  know  he  digged  his  foundation  deep, 
and  laid  it  strong  and  sure. 

"  I  wished  to  say  a  word  as  to  his  wit,  but  time 
would  fail  me  to  speak  of  every  thing.  Yet,  without 
reference  to  that,  all  I  may  say  would  be  too  incom- 
plete. His  wit  did  not  raise  an  uproarious  laugh,  but 
created  an  inward  and  homefelt  delight,  and  took  up 
its  abode  in  your  memory.  The  casual  word,  the  un- 
expected answer  at  the  corner  of  the  street,  the  re- 
mark whispered  over  the  back  of  his  chair  while  the 
docket  was  calling,  you  repeated  to  the  next  man  you 
met,  and  he  to  the  next,  and  in  a  few  days  it  became 
the  anecdote  of  the  town.  When  as  lawyers  we  met 
together,  in  tedious  hours,  and  sought  to  entertain 
ourselves,  we  found  we  did  better  with  anecdotes  of 
Mr.  Choate  than  on  our  own  original  resources. 

"  Besides  his  eloquence,  his  logical  power,  and 
his  wit,  he  possessed  deep  and  varied  learning.  His 
learning  was  accurate,  too.  He  could  put  his  hand 
on  any  Massachusetts  case  as  quick  as  the  judge  who 
decided  it. 

"  But  if  I  were  asked  to  name  that  which  I  regard 
as  his  characteristic,  —  that  in  which  he  differed 


1858-1859.]          REMARKS  OF   R.   H.   DANA,  JR.  389 

from  other  learned,  logical,  and  eloquent  men  of 
great  eminence,  —  I  should  say  it  was  his  aesthetic 
nature. 

"  Even  under  the  excitement  of  this  moment,  I 
should  not  compare  his  mind  in  the  point  of  mere 
force  of  understanding  (and,  indeed,  he  would  not 
have  tolerated  such  a  comparison)  with  Daniel  Web- 
ster ;  and  yet  I  think  we  have  a  right  to  say  that,  in 
his  aesthetic  nature,  he  possessed  something  to  which 
the  minds  of  Franklin,  Adams,  Dexter,  Mason,  and 
Webster,  were  strangers. 

"  But  I  ask  pardon  of  the  bar.  I  am  not  desirous 
of  making  these  comparisons. 

"  I  need  not  say,  Sir,  Rufus  Choate  was  a  great 
lawyer,  a  great  jurist,  a  great  publicist,  but  more  than 
all  that  —  and  I  speak  of  that  which  I  know  —  his 
nature  partook  strongly  of  the  poetic  element.  It 
was  not  something  which  he  could  put  on  or  off,  but 
it  was  born  with  him  —  I  will  not  say  died  with  him, 
but  is  translated  with  him. 

"  Shakspeare  was  his  great  author.  I  would  have 
defied  even  the  Shakspeare  scholar  to  refer  to  any 
passage  of  Shakspeare  that  Mr.  Choate  would  not 
have  recognized  instantly.  Next  to  Shakspeare,  I 
think  I  have  a  right  to  say  he  thought  that  he  owed 
more  to  Wordsworth  than  to  any  other  poet.  He 
studied  him  before  it  was  the  fashion,  and  before  his 
high  position  had  been  vindicated. 

"  Then  he  was,  of  course,  a  great  student  of  Milton, 
and  after  that,  I  think  that  those  poets  who  gained 
the  affections  of  his  youth,  and  wrote  when  he  was 
young,  —  Byron,  Scott,  Coleridge,  Southey,  —  had  his 
affections  chiefly;  though,  of  course,  he  read  and 


390  MEMOIR   OF  RUFUS  CHOATE.'         [CHAP.  X. 

valued  and  studied  Spenser  and  Dryden,  and,  as  a 
satirist  and  a  maker  of  epigrams,  Pope.  This  love  of 
poetry  with  him  was  genuine  and  true.  He  read  and 
studied  always,  not  with  a  view  to  make  ornaments 
for  his  speeches,  but  because  his  nature  drew  him  to 
it.  We  all  know  he  was  a  fine  Greek  and  Latin 
scholar ;  was  accurate ;  he  never  made  a  false  quan- 
tity. Who  ever  detected  him  in  a  misquotation  ?  He 
once  told  me  he  never  allowed  a  day  to  go  by  that  he 
did  not  write  out  a  translation  from  some  Greek  or 
Latin  author.  This  was  one  of  the  means  by  which 
he  gained  his  affluence  of  language.  Of  Cicero  he 
was  a  frequent  student,  particularly  of  his  ethical  and 
philosophical  writings.  But  Greek  was  his  favorite 
tongue. 

"  One  word  more,  Sir.  It  is  not  so  generally  known, 
I  suppose,  of  Mr.  Choate,  that,  certainly  during  the 
last  ten  years  of  his  life,  he  gave  much  of  his  thoughts 
to  those  noble  and  elevating  problems  which  relate  to 
the  nature  and  destiny  of  man,  to  the  nature  of  God, 
to  the  great  hereafter;  recognizing  Sir,  that  great 
truth  —  so  beautifully  expressed  in  his  favorite  tongue 
—  in  sacred  writ,  To,  /j,r)  ^.eiro^eva  ala>via  —  things 
not  seen  are  eternal.  He  studied  not  merely  psychol- 
ogy ;  he  knew  well  the  great  schools  of  philosophy ; 
he  knew  well  their  characteristics,  and  read  their 
leading  men.  I  suspect  he  was  the  first  man  in  this 
community  who  read  Sir  William  Hamilton,  and  Man- 
sel's  work  on  'The  Limits  of  Religious  Thought;' 
and  I  doubt  if  the  Chairs  of  Harvard  and  Yale  were 
more  familiar  with  the  English  and  German  mind, 
and  their  views  on  these  great  problems,  than  Mr. 
Choate. 


1868-1859.]          REMARKS   OF   R.   H.   DANA,  JR.  391 

"  He  carried  his  study  even  into  technical  theology. 
He  knew  its  genius  and  spirit  better  than  many 
divines.  He  knew  in  detail  the  great  dogmas  of  St. 
Augustine  ;  and  he  studied  and  knew  John  Calvin 
and  Luther.  He  knew  the  great  principles  which  lie 
at  the  foundation  of  Catholic  theology  and  institu- 
tions, and  the  theology  of  the  Evangelical  school ; 
and  he  knew  and  studied  the  rationalistic  writings  of 
the  Germans,  and  was  familiar  with  their  theories  and 
characteristics. 

"  With  all  those  persons  whom  he  met  and  who  he 
felt,  with  reasonable  confidence,  had  sufficient  eleva- 
tion to  value  these  subjects,  he  conversed  upon  them 
freely.  But  beyond  this  —  as  to  his  opinions,  his  re- 
sults—  I  have  no  right  to  speak.  I  only  wished  to 
allude  to  a  few  of  the  more  prominent  of  his  charac- 
teristics ;  and  it  is  peculiarly  gratifying  to  remember, 
at  this  moment,  that  he  had  the  elevation  of  mind  so 
to  lay  hold  upon  the  greatest  of  all  subjects. 

"  I  meant  to  have  spoken  of  his  studies  of  the  Eng- 
lish prose-writers,  among  whom  Bacon  and  Burke  had 
his  preference.  But  he  read  them  all,  and  loved  to 
read  them  all ;  from  the  scholastic  stateliness  of  Mil- 
ton, warring  for  the  right  of  expressing  thoughts  for 
all  ages,  to  the  simplicity  of  Cowper's  Letters. 

"  But  all  this  is  gone  for  us !  We  are  never  to  see 
him  again  in  the  places  that  knew  him.  To  think 
that  he,  of  all  men,  who  loved  his  home  so,  should 
have  died  among  strangers!  That  he,  of  all  men, 
should  have  died  under  a  foreign  flag !  I  can  go  no 
further.  I  can  only  call  upon  all  to  bear  witness 
now,  and  to  the  next  generation,  that  he  stood  before 
us  an  example  of  eminence  in  science,  in  erudition,  in 


392  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS   CHOATE.          [CHAP.  X. 

genius,  in  taste,  —  in  honor,  in  generosity,  in  human- 
ity,—  in  every  liberal  sentiment,  and  every  liberal 
accomplishment." 


ADDRESS  OF  HON.  BENJAMIN  R.  CURTIS  ON  PRESENTING  TO 
THE  SUPREME  JUDICIAL  COURT  THE  RESOLUTIONS  OF  THE 
SUFFOLK  BAR.  — [Sept.  20,  1859.] 

"  May  it  please  your  Honor: 

"  I  have  been  directed  by  the  bar  of  the  County  of 
Suffolk,  to  present  to  the  Supreme  Judicial  Court 
certain  resolutions  adopted  by  them,  upon  the  decease 
of  their  lamented  and  distinguished  brother,  Rufus 
Choate,  and  to  request  the  Court  to  have  these  reso- 
lutions entered  on  record  here.  They  were  adopted 
at  a  meeting  of  the  members  of  this  bar,  held  in  this 
place  on  the  19th  day  of  July  last,  since  which  time 
the  Supreme  Judicial  Court  is  now  first  in  session  for 
the  business  of  the  County  of  Suffolk.  With  the 
leave  of  the  Court  I  will  ask  the  clerk  to  read  the 
resolutions.  [The  clerk  read  the  resolutions,  which 
have  been  published  heretofore.] 

"  This  is  not  the  occasion,  nor  is  it  devolved  on  me, 
to  pronounce  a  eulogy  on  the  subject  of  these  resolu- 
tions, whose  death  in  the  midst  of  his  brilliant  and  im- 
portant career  has  made  so  profound  an  impression  on 
his  brethren  of  the  bar  and  of  the  community  at  large. 
The  Court  will  have  noticed  that  by  one  of  the  reso- 
lutions I  have  read,  other  suitable  provision  has  been 
made  for  that  tribute  of  respect  to  him,  and  for  doing 
justice  to  their  sense  of  their  own  and  the  public  loss. 
But  the  relations  which  Mr.  Choate  long  sustained  to 
this  Court  have  been  too  conspicuous  and  too  impor- 
tant to  me  to  be  wholly  silent  here  respecting  them. 


1858-1859.]      ADDRESS   OF   HON.   B.    R.    CURTIS.  393 

The  bench  and  the  bar  are  mutually  dependent  on 
each  other  for  that  co-operation  which  is  essential  to 
the  steady,  prompt,  and  successful  distribution  of 
justice.  Without  the  assistance  and  support  of  a 
learned,  industrious,  able,  and  honest  bar,  it  is  not  too 
much  to  say  that  no  bench  in  this  country  can  sustain 
itself,  and  its  most  strenuous  exertions  can  result  only 
in  a  halting  and  uncertain  course  of  justice.  Without 
a  learned,  patient,  just,  and  courageous  bench,  there 
will  not  for  any  long  time  continue  to  be  a  bar  fitted 
for  its  high  and  difficult  duties. 

"  When,  therefore,  one  of  their  number,  who  for 
many  years  has  exerted  his  great  and  brilliant  powers 
in  this  forum,  has  been  removed  by  death,  we  feel 
that  in  its  annunciation  to  this  Court,  we  make  known 
a  fact  of  importance  to  itself,  and  that  we  may  be 
sure  of  its  sympathy,  and  of  its  appreciation  of  what 
is  indeed  a  common  loss.  You  have  witnessed  his 
labors  and  know  how  strenuous,  how  frequent,  how 
great,  how  devoted  to  his  duty  they  have  been.  You 
have  been  instructed  by  his  learning  and  relieved  by 
his  analysis  of  complicated  controversies.  You  have 
doubtless  been  delighted  by  his  eloquence  and  in- 
formed and  interested  by  the  fruits  of  his  rich  and 
liberal  culture.  And  when  his  brethren  of  the  bar 
come  here  to  make  known  their  sense  of  their  loss, 
they  cannot  be  unmindful  that  to  you  also  it  is  a  loss, 
not  in  one  day  to  be  repaired. 

"  We  are  aware  that  it  has  sometimes  been  thought, 
and  by  the  thoughtless  or  inexperienced  often  said, 
that  from  his  lips  '  With  fatal  sweetness  elocution 
flowed.'  But  they  who  have  thought  or  said  this 
have  but  an  imperfect  notion  of  the  nature  of  our  judi- 


394  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS  CHOATE.          [CHAP.  X. 

cial  controversies,  or  of  the  ability  for  the  discovery 
of  truth  and  justice  which  may  be  expected  here. 

"  Such  persons  begin  with  the  false  assumption  that 
in  the  complicated  cases  which  are  brought  to  trial 
here,  one  party  is  altogether  right  and  the  other  alto- 
gether wrong.  They  are  ignorant,  that  in  nearly  all 
cases  there  is  truth  and  justice  and  law  on  both  sides  ; 
that  it  is  for  the  tribunal  to  discover  how  much  of 
these  belongs  to  each,  and  to  balance  them,  and  ascer- 
tain which  preponderates ;  and  that  so  artificial  are 
the  greater  portion  of  our  social  rights,  and  so  com- 
plex the  facts  on  which  they  depend,  that  it  is  only 
by  means  of  such  an  investigation  and  decision  that  it 
can  be  certainly  known  on  which  side  the  real  justice 
is.  That,  consequently,  it  is  the  duty  of  the  advocate 
to  manjfest  and  enforce  all  the  elements  of  justice, 
truth,  and  law  which  exist  on  one  side,  and  to  take 
care  that  no  false  appearances  of  those  great  realities 
are  exhibited  on  the  other.  That  while  the  zealous 
discharge  of  this  duty  is  consistent  with  the  most 
devoted  loyalty  to  truth  and  justice,  it  calls  for  the 
exertion  of  the  highest  attainments  and  powers  of  the 
lawyer  and  the  advocate,  in  favor  of  the  particular 
party  whose  interests  have  been  intrusted  to  his  care. 
And  if  from  eloquence  and  learning  and  skill  and 
laborious  preparation  and  ceaseless  vigilance,  so  pre- 
eminent as  in  Mr.  Choate,  there  might  seem  to  be 
danger  that  the  scales  might  incline  to  the  wrong  side, 
some  compensation  would  be  made  by  the  increased 
exertion  to  which  that  seeming  danger  would  natu- 
rally incite  his  opponents  ;  and  I  am  happy  to  believe, 
what  he  believed,  that  as  complete  security  against 
wrong  as  the  nature  of  human  institutions  will  permit, 


1858-1859.]        ADDRESS   OF   HON.   B.   R.    CURTIS.          395 

has  always  been  found  in  the  steadiness,  intelligence, 
love  of  justice,  and  legal  learning  of  the  tribunal  by 
which  law  and  fact  are  here  finally  determined. 

"  I  desire,  therefore,  on  this  occasion,  and  in  this 
presence,  and  in  behalf  of  my  brethren  of  this  bar,  to 
declare  our  appreciation  of  the  injustice  which  would 
be  done  to  this  great  and  eloquent  advocate  by  attrib- 
uting to  him  any  want  of  loyalty  to  truth,  or  any 
deference  to  wrong,  because  he  employed  all  his  great 
powers  and  attainments,  and  used  to  the  utmost  his 
consummate  skill  and  eloquence,  in  exhibiting  and 
enforcing  the  comparative  merits  of  one  side  of  the 
cases  in  which  he  acted.  In  doing  so  he  but  did  his 
duty.  If  other  people  did  theirs,  the  administration 
of  justice  was  secured. 

"  A  trial  in  a  court  of  justice  has  been  fitly  termed 
a  drama  in  which  the  actors,  the  events,  and  the  pas- 
sions were  all  realities  ;  and  of  the  parts  which  the 
members  of  the  legal  profession  play  therein,  it  was 
once  said,  by  one  who,  I  think,  should  have  known 
better,  that  they  are  brawlers  for  hire.  I  believe  the 
charge  can  have  no  general  application  —  certainly 
not  to  those  who,  within  my  experience,  have  prac- 
tised at  this  bar,  where  good  manners  have  been  as 
common  as  good  learning.  At  all  events,  he  of  whom 
I  speak  was  a  signal  example  that  all  lawyers  are  not 
brawlers. 

"For,  among  other  things  most  worthy  to  be  re- 
membered of  him,  he  showed,  in  the  most  convincing 
manner,  that  forensic  strife  is  consistent  with  uniform 
personal  kindness  and  gentleness  of  demeanor ;  that 
mere  smartness,  or  aggressive  and  irritating  captious- 
ness,  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  most  effective  con- 


396  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS  CHOATE.  [CHAP.  X. 

duct  of  a  cause ;  that  the  business  of  an  advocate  is 
with  the  law  and  the  evidence,  and  not  in  provoking 
or  humbling  an  opponent ;  that  wrangling,  and  the 
irritations  which  spring  from  it,  obstruct  the  course  of 
justice ;  and  are  indeed  twice  cursed,  for  they  injure 
him  who  gives  and  him  who  receives. 

"I  am  sure  I  shall  have  the  concurrence  of  the 
Court  when  I  say,  that  among  all  Mr.  Choate's  extra- 
ordinary gifts  of  nature  and  graces  of  art,  there  was 
nothing  more  remarkable  than  the  sweetness  of  his 
temper  and  the  courtesy  of  his  manners,  both  to  the 
bench  and  the  bar.  However  eager  might  be  the 
strife,  however  exhausting  the  toil,  however  anxious 
the  care,  —  these  were  never  lost.  The  recollection 
of  them  is  now  in  all  our  hearts. 

"  I  need  not  repeat  that  I  shall  make  no  attempt  to 
draw  even  an  outline  of  the  qualities  and  attainments 
and  powers  of  this  great  advocate.  Under  any  cir- 
cumstances I  should  distrust  my  own  ability  for  the 
work,  and  as  I  have  already  said,  it  is  not  expected  of 
me  here. 

"  I  have  simply  to  move  this  Honorable  Court  to 
receive  these  resolutions,  and  direct  them  to  be  entered 
of  record." 

In  accordance  with  the  vote  of  the  Suffolk  Bar,  the 
resolutions  were  presented  to  the  United  States  Dis- 
trict Court  by  the  District  Attorney,  and  the  following 
reply  was  made  by  Mr.  Justice  Sprague  :  — 

"  Notwithstanding  the  time  that  has  elapsed  since 
the  death  of  Mr.  Choate,  and  the  numerous  demon- 
strations of  respect  by  the  bar,  by  judicial  tribunals, 


1858-1859.]          KEMARKS   OF  JUDGE    SPRAGUE.  397 

deliberative  bodies,  and  popular  assemblies,  still  it  is 
proper  that  such  an  event  should  not  pass  unnoticed 
in  this  court.  Others  have  spoken  fully  and  elo- 
quently of  his  eminence  and  excellence  in  various 
departments  ;  we  may  here  at  least  appropriately  say 
something  of  him  as  a  lawyer  and  an  advocate.  His 
life  was  mainly  devoted  to  the  practice  of  his  profes- 
sion, and  this  court  was  the  scene  of  many  of  his 
greatest  efforts  and  highest  achievements.  I  believe 
him  to  have  been  the  most  accomplished  advocate 
that  this  country  has  produced.  With  extraordinary 
genius  he  united  unremitted  industry,  devoted  almost 
exclusively  to  the  law,  and  to  those  literary  studies 
which  tend  most  directly  to  accomplish  and  perfect 
the  orator  and  the  advocate.  The  result  was  wonder- 
ful. His  command  of  language  was  unequalled.  I 
certainly  have  heard  no  one  who  approached  him  in 
the  richness  of  his  vocabulary.  This  wealth  he  used 
profusely,  but  with  a  discrimination,  a  felicity  of 
expression,  and  an  ease  and  flow,  which  were  truly 
marvellous.  Although  to  the  careless  or  unintelligent 
hearer  his  words  would  sometimes  seem  to  be  in 
excess,  yet  to  the  attentive  and  cultivated  every  word 
had  its  appropriate  place  and  its  shade  of  meaning, 
conducing  more  or  less  to  the  perfection  of  the  picture. 
To  those  who  heard  Mr.  Choate  for  the  first  time,  it 
would  seem  as  though  this  ready  outpouring  of  choice 
and  expressive  language  must  be  the  result  of  special 
preparation.  But  those  who  have  heard  him  often, 
especially  in  those  unforeseen  emergencies  which  so 
frequently  arise  in  the  trial  of  causes,  knew  that  the 
stream,  which  was  so  full  and  clear  and  brilliant, 
gushed  forth  from  a  fountain  as  exhaustless  as  Nature. 


398  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS  CHOATE.  [CHAP.  X. 

'  Rusticus  expectat  dum  defluat  amnis  ;  at  ille 
Labitur,  et  labetur  in  omne  volubilis  aevum.' 

"  But  it  is  not  to  be  understood  by  any  means  that 
Mr.  Choate's  highest  merit  consisted  in  his  rhetoric. 
That,  indeed,  was  the  most  striking.  But  those  who 
had  most  profoundly  considered  and  mastered  the  sub- 
ject saw  that  the  matter  of  his  discourse,  the  thought, 
was  worthy  of  the  drapery  with  which  it  was  clothed. 
His  mind  was  at  once  comprehensive  and  acute.  No 
judicial  question  was  too  enlarged  for  its  vision,  and 
none  too  minute  for  its  analysis.  To  the  Court  he 
could  present  arguments  learned,  logical,  and  pro- 
found, or  exquisitely  refined  and  subtle,  as  the  oc- 
casion seemed  to  require.  But  it  was  in  trials  before 
a  jury  that  he  was  pre-eminent.  Nothing  escaped  his 
vigilance,  and  nothing  was  omitted  that  could  con- 
tribute to  a  verdict  for  his  client.  His  skill  in  the 
examination  of  witnesses  was  consummate.  I  have 
never  seen  it  equalled.  The  character  of  the  jury, 
individually  and  collectively,  was  not  overlooked,  and 
their  opinions  and  prejudices  were  not  only  respected, 
but  soothed  and  conciliated  with  the  utmost  tact  and 
delicacy.  His  quickness  of  apprehension  and  untir- 
ing application  of  all  his  energies  to  the  cause  in  hand 
gave  him  complete  mastery  of  his  materials.  His  self- 
possession  was  perfect.  However  suddenly  the  aspect 
of  his  cause  might  be  clouded  by  unexpected  develop- 
ments, he  was  never  disconcerted.  He  had  wonder- 
ful fertility  of  resources,  which  were  always  at  instant 
command,  and  seemed  to  multiply  with  the  difficulties 
which  called  them  forth.  Whatever  the  course  pre- 
viously marked  out,  or  however  laboriously  a  position 
had  been  fortified,  they  were  without  hesitation  aban- 


1858-1859.]         REMARKS   OF  JUDGE    SPRAGUE.  399 

doned  the  moment  that  a  new  exigency  rendered  it 
expedient  to  take  other  grounds,  and  the  transition 
was  often  effected  with  such  facility  and  adroitness 
that  his  opponent  found  himself  assailed  from  a 
new  quarter  before  he  had  suspected  a  change  of 
position.  t 

"  In  his  arguments,  not  only  was  each  topic  pre- 
sented in  all  its  force,  but  they  were  all  arranged 
with  artistic  skill,  so  as  mutually  to  sustain  and 
strengthen  each  other,  and  present  a  harmonious  and 
imposing  whole.  He  usually  began  his  address  to  the 
jury  with  a  rapid  and  comprehensive  view  of  the 
whole  trial,  in  which  he  grouped  and  made  strikingly 
prominent  the  circumstances  which  would  make  the 
strongest  impression  of  the  fairness  of  his  client  and 
the  justness  of  his  cause  ;  thus  securing  the  sympathy 
and  good  wishes  of  the  jury,  while  he  should  take 
them  with  him  through  that  fulness  of  detail  and  that 
searching  analysis  which  was  sure  to  follow.  How- 
ever protracted  his  arguments,  they  were  listened  to 
throughout  with  eager  attention.  His  matter,  man- 
ner, and  diction  created  such  interest  and  pleasure  in 
what  was  uttered,  and  such  expectation  of  new  and 
striking  thoughts  and  expressions  to  come,  that  atten- 
tion could  not  be  withdrawn.  With  a  memory  stored 
with  the  choicest  literature  of  our  own  and  other  lan- 
guages, and  a  strong,  vivid,  and  prolific  imagination, 
his  argument  was  rarely  decked  with  flowers.  It  pre- 
sented rather  the  grave  and  gorgeous  foliage  of  our 
resplendent  autumn  forest,  infinite  in  richness  and 
variety,  but  from  which  we  should  hardly  be  willing 
to  spare  a  leaf  or  a  tint.  Such  was  his  genius,  his 
opulence  of  thought,  and  intenseness  of  expression, 


400  MEMOIR   OF   HUFUS  CHOATE.          [CHAP.  X. 

that  we  involuntarily  speak  of  him  in  unmeasured 
and  unqualified  terms. 

"  The  characteristic  which  perhaps  has  been  most 
dwelt  upon  by  those  who  have  spoken  of  Mr.  Choate, 
was  his  invincible  good  temper.  This  especially  en- 
deared him,  not  only  to  his  brethren  of  the  bar,  but, 
also,  to  the  bench.  Anxious,  earnest,  and  even  vehe- 
ment, in  his  advocacy,  and  sometimes  suffering  from 
disease,  still  no  vicissitude  or  vexations  of  the  cause, 
or  annoyance  from  opponents,  could  infuse  into  his 
address  any  tinge  of  bitterness,  or  cause  him  for  a 
moment  to  forget  his  habitual  courtesy  and  kindness. 
He  never  made  assaults  upon  opposing  counsel,  and 
if  made  on  him,  they  were  repelled  with  mildness  and 
forbearance.  If,  indeed,  his  opponent  sometimes  felt 
the  keen  point  of  a  pungent  remark,  it  seemed  rather 
to  have  slipped  from  an  overfull  quiver  than  to  have 
been  intentionally  hurled.  This  abstinence  was  the 
more  meritorious,  because  the  temptation  of  super- 
abundant ability  was  not  wanting. 

"  We  can  hardly  measure  his  power  for  evil  if  he 
had  studied  the  language  of  offence,  and  turned  his 
eloquence  into  the  channels  of  vituperation.  But 
against  this  perversion  he  was  secured  by  his  kindly 
nature.  I  am  sure  that  it  would  have  been  to  him  a 
source  of  anguish  to  believe  that  he  had  inflicted  a 
wound  which  rankled  in  the  breast  of  another. 

"  No  man  was  more  exempt  from  vanity.  He 
seemed  to  have  no  thought  for  himself,  but  only 
for  his  client  and  his  cause.  The  verdict  was  kept 
steadily  in  view.  His  most  brilliant  efforts  had  no 
indication  of  self-exhibition  or  display.  Magnificent 
as  they  were,  they  seemed  to  be  almost  involuntary 


1858-1859.]  ADDKESS   OF   MR.   EVERETT.  401 

outpourings  from  a  fulness  of  thought  and  language 
that  could  not  be  repressed.  From  feeling,  reflection, 
and  habit,  he  was  a  supporter  of  law,  and  of  that 
order  which  is  the  result  of  its  regular  administration. 
He  was  truly  a  friend  of  the  Court,  and  his  manner 
to  them  was  invariably  respectful  and  deferential. 
He  took  an  enlightened  view  of  their  duties,  and  ap- 
preciated their  difficulties ;  and  received  their  judg- 
ments, even  when  adverse  to  his  wishes,  if  not  always 
with  entire  acquiescence,  at  least  with  candor  and 
graceful  submission.  We  cannot  but  sympathize  with 
the  bar  in  a  bereavement  which  has  taken  from  us 
such  an  associate  and  friend,  by  whom  the  Court  has 
been  so  often  enlightened  and  aided  in  their  labors, 
and  whose  rare  gifts  contributed  to  make  the  'light 
of  jurisprudence  gladsome.' " 

On  Friday,  the  22d  of  July,  a  public  meeting  of 
the  citizens  of  Boston  was  held  in  Faneuil  Hall.  The 
darkened  windows,  the  burning  gas-lights,  the  pillars 
and  galleries  covered  with  mourning  drapery,  the 
heavy  festoons  stretching  from  the  centre  of  the  ceil- 
ing to  the  capitals  of  the  pillars,  the  quiet  crowd 
weighed  down  as  by  a  general  calamity,  all  spoke  the 
one  language  of  bereavement  and  grief.  Addresses 
were  made  by  many  distinguished  persons,  and  among 
others,  by  Mr.  Everett,  who  spoke  as  follows :  — 

ADDRESS  OF  MR.  EVERETT. 

"  MR.  MAYOR  AND  FELLOW-CITIZENS,  —  I  obey 
the  only  call  which  could  with  propriety  have  drawn 
me  at  this  time  from  my  retirement,  in  accepting  your 
invitation  to  unite  with  you  in  the  melancholy  duties 

26 


402  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS   CHOATE.  [CHAP.  X. 

which  we  are  assembled  to  perform.  While  I  speak, 
Sir,  the  lifeless  remains  of  our  dear  departed  friend 
are  expected  ;  it  may  be,  have  already  returned  to  his 
bereaved  home.  We  sent  him  forth,  but  a  few  days 
since,  in  search  of  health  ;  the  exquisite  bodily  organ- 
ization over-tasked  and  shattered,  but  the  master  in- 
tellect still  shining  in  unclouded  strength.  Anxious, 
but  not  desponding,  we  sent  him  forth,  hoping  that 
the  bracing  air  of  the  ocean,  which  he  greatly  loved, 
the  respite  from  labor,  the  change  of  scene,  the  cheer- 
ful intercourse  which  he  was  so  well  calculated  to  en- 
joy with  congenial  spirits  abroad,  would  return  him 
to  us  refreshed  and  renovated ;  but  he  has  come  back 
to  us  dust  and  ashes,  a  pilgrim  already  on  his  way  to 

'  The  undiscovered  country,  from  whose  bourne 
No  traveller  returns.' 

"  How  could  I  refuse  to  bear  my  humble  part  in  the 
tribute  of  respect  which  you  are  assembled  to  pay  to 
the  memory  of  such  a  man ! — a  man  not  only  honored 
by  me,  in  common  with  the  whole  country,  but  ten- 
derly cherished  as  a  faithful  friend,  from  the  morning 
of  his  days,  and  almost  from  the  morning  of  mine,  — 
one  with  whom  through  life  I  was  delighted  to  take 
sweet  counsel,  for  whom  I  felt  an  affection  never 
chilled  for  a  moment,  during  forty  years  since  it 
sprung  up.  I  knew  our  dear  friend,  Sir,  from  the 
time  that  he  entered  the  Law  School  at  Cambridge. 
I  was  associated  with  him  as  one  of  the  Massachusetts 
delegation  in  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the 
United  States,  between  whom  and  myself  there  was 
an  entire  community  of  feeling  and  opinion  on  all 
questions  of  men  and  measures  ;  and  with  whom,  in 
these  later  years,  as  his  near  neighbor,  and  especially 


1858-1859.]  ADDRESS    OF   MR.    EVERETT.  403 

when  sickness  confined  him  at  home,  I  have  enjoyed 
opportunities  of  the  most  intimate  social  intercourse. 

"  Now  that  he  is  gone,  Sir,  I  feel  that  one  more  is 
taken  away  of  those  most  trusted  and  loved,  and  with 
whom  I  had  most  hoped  to  finish  the  journey ;  nay, 
Sir,  one  whom,  in  the  course  of  nature,  I  should  have 
preceded  to  its  end,  and  who  would  have  performed 
for  me  the  last  kindly  office,  which  I,  with  drooping 
spirit,  would  fain  perform  for  him. 

"  But  although  with  a  willing  heart  I  undertake 
the  duty  you  have  devolved  upon  me,  I  cannot  but 
feel  how  little  remains  to  be  said.  It  is  but  echoing 
the  voice,  which  has  been  heard  from  every  part  of 
the  country,  —  from  the  Bar,  from  the  Press,  from 
every  Association  by  which  it  could  with  propriety 
be  uttered,  —  to  say  that  he  stood  at  the  head  of  his 
profession  in  this  country. 

u  If,  in  his  own  or  in  any  other  part  of  the  Union, 
there  was  his  superior  in  any  branch  of  legal  knowl- 
edge, there  was  certainly  no  one  who  united,  to  the 
same  extent,  profound  learning  in  the  law,  with  a 
range  almost  boundless  of  miscellaneous  reading, 
reasoning  powers  of  the  highest  order,  intuitive 
quickness  of  perception,  a  wariness  and  circumspec- 
tion never  taken  by  surprise,  and  an  imagination 
which  rose,  on  a  bold  and  easy  wing,  to  the  highest 
heaven  of  invention.  These  powers,  trained  by  dili- 
gent cultivation,  these  attainments,  combined  and  ap- 
plied with  sound  judgment,  consummate  skill,  and 
exquisite  taste,  necessarily  placed  him  at  the  head  of 
the  profession  of  his  choice ;  where,  since  the  death 
of  Mr.  Webster,  he  shone  without  a  rival. 

"  With   such   endowments,   formed    at    the    best 


404  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS   CHOATE.  [CHAP.  X 

schools  of  professional  education,  exercised  with  un- 
wearied assiduity,  through  a  long  professional  life, 
under  the  spur  of  generous  ambition,  and  the  heavy 
responsibility  of  an  ever-growing  reputation  to  be 
sustained, — if  possible  to  be  raised,  —  he  could  fill  no 
second  place. 

"But  he  did  not,  like  most  eminent  jurists,  content 
himself  with  the  learning  or  the  fame  of  his  profes- 
sion. He  was  more  than  most  men  in  any  profession, 
in  the  best  sense  of  the  word,  a  man  of  letters.  He 
kept  up  his  Academical  studies  in  after-life.  He  did 
not  think  it  the  part  either  of  wisdom  or  good  taste  to 
leave  behind  him  at  school,  or  at  college,  the  noble 
languages  of  the  great  peoples  of  antiquity ;  but  he 
continued  through  life  to  read  the  Greek  and  Roman 
classics. 

"  He  was  also  familiar  with  the  whole  range  of  Eng- 
lish literature ;  and  he  had  a  respectable  acquaintance 
with  the  standard  French  authors.  This  wide  and 
varied  circle  of  reading  not  only  gave  a  liberal  ex- 
pansion to  his  mind,  in  all  directions,  but  it  endowed 
him  with  a  great  wealth  of  choice  but  unstudied  lan- 
guage, and  enabled  him  to  command  a  richness  of  illus- 
tration, whatever  subject  he  had  in  hand,  beyond 
most  of  our  public  speakers  and  writers.  This  taste 
for  reading  was  formed  in  early  life.  While  he  was 
at  the  Law  School  at  Cambridge,  I  was  accustomed 
to  meet  him  more  frequently  than  any  other  person 
of  his  standing  in  the  alcoves  of  the  library  of  the 
University. 

"As  he  advanced  in  years,  and  acquired  the  means 
of  gratifying  his  taste  in  this  respect,  he  formed  a 
miscellaneous  collection,  probably  as  valuable  as  any 


1858-1859.]          ADDRESS    OF  MR.    EVERETT.  405 

other  in  Boston ;  and  he  was  accustomed  playfully  to 
say  that  every  Saturday  afternoon,  after  the  labor  of 
the  week,  he  indulged  himself  in  buying  and  bringing 
home  a  new  book.  Thus  reading  with  a  keen  relish, 
as  a  relaxation  from  professional  toil,  and  with  a 
memory  that  nothing  worth  retaining  escaped,  he  be- 
came a  living  storehouse  of  polite  literature,  out  of 
which,  with  rare  felicity  and  grace,  he  brought  forth 
treasures  new  and  old,  not  deeming  these  last  the 
least  precious. 

"  Though  living  mainly  for  his  profession,  Mr. 
Choate  engaged  to  some  extent  in  public  life,  and 
that  at  an  early  age,  as  a  member  of  the  Legislature 
of  Massachusetts,  and  of  the  National  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives, and  in  riper  years  as  a  Senator  of  the 
United  States,  as  the  successor  of  Mr.  Webster,  whose 
entire  confidence  he  enjoyed,  and  whose  place  he,  if 
any  one,  was  not  unworthy  to  fill.  In  these  different 
positions,  he  displayed  consummate  ability.  His  ap- 
pearance, his  silent  demeanor,  in  either  House  of 
Congress,  commanded  respect.  He  was  one  of  the 
few  whose  very  presence  in  a  public  assembly  is  a 
call  to  order.  • 

"  In  the  daily  routine  of  legislation  he  did  not  take 
an  active  part.  He  rather  shunned  clerical  work,  and 
consequently  avoided,  as  much  as  duty  permitted,  the 
labor  of  the  committee-room ;  but  on  every  great 
question  that  came  up  while  he  was  a  member  of 
either  House  of  Congress,  he  made  a  great  speech  ; 
and  when  he  had  spoken,  there  was  very  little  left 
for  any  one  else  to  say  on  the  same  side  of  the  ques- 
tion. I  remember  on  one  occasion,  after  he  had  been 
defending,  on  broad  national  grounds,  the  policy  of 


406  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS  CHOATE.          [CHAP.  X. 

affording  a  moderate  protection  to  our  native  indus- 
try, showing  that  it  was  not  merely  a  local  but  a 
national  interest,  and  seeking  to  establish  this  point 
by  a  great  variety  of  illustrations,  equally  novel  and 
ingenious,  a  Western  member,  who  had  hitherto 
wholly  dissented  from  this  view  of  the  subject,  ex- 
claimed that  he  '  was  the  most  persuasive  speaker  he 
had  ever  heard.' 

"  But  though  abundantly  able  to  have  filled  a  promi- 
nent place  among  the  distinguished  active  statesmen  of 
the  day,  he  had  little  fondness  for  political  life,  and  no 
aptitude  whatever  for  the  out-doors  management,  — 
for  the  electioneering  legerdemain, — for  the  wearisome 
correspondence  with  local  great  men,  —  and  the  heart- 
breaking drudgery  of  franking  cart-loads  of  speeches 
and  public  documents  to  the  four  winds,  —  which  are 
necessary  at  the  present  day  to  great  success  in  a  po- 
litical career.  Still  less  adroit  was  he  in  turning  to 
some  personal  advantage  whatever  topic  happens  for 
the  moment  to  attract  public  attention  ;  fishing  with 
ever  freshly  baited  hook  in  the  turbid  waters  of  an 
ephemeral  popularity.  In  reference  to  some  of  the  arts 
by  which  political  advancement  is  sought  and  obtained, 
he  once  said  to  me,  with  that  well-known  characteris- 
tic look,  in  which  sadness  and  compassionate  pleasan- 
try were  about  equally  mingled,  '  They  did  not  do 
such  things  in  Washington's  day.' 

"  If  ever  there  was  a  truly  disinterested  patriot, 
Rufus  Choate  was  that  man.  In  his  political  career 
there  was  no  shade  of  selfishness.  Had  he  been 
willing  to  purchase  advancement  at  the  price  often 
paid  for  it,  there  was  never  a  moment,  from  the  time 
he  first  made  himself  felt  and  known,  that  he  could 


1858-1859.]  ADDRESS    OF    MR.    EVERETT.  407 

not  have  commanded  any  thing  which  any  party  could 
bestow.  But  he  desired  none  of  the  rewards  or 
honors  of  success.  On  the  contrary,  he  not  only  for 
his  individual  self  regarded  office  as  a  burden  —  an 
dbstacle  in  the  way  of  the  cultivation  of  his  profes- 
sional and  literary  tastes  —  but  he  held,  that  of 
necessity,  and  in  consequence  of  the  strong  tendency 
of  our  parties  to  assume  a  sectional  character,  conser- 
vative opinions,  seeking  to  moderate  between  the 
extremes  which  agitate  the  country,  must  of  necessity 
be  in  the  minority  ;  that  it  was  the  '  mission  '  of  men 
who  hold  such  opinions,  not  to  fill  honorable  and 
lucrative  posts  which  are  unavoidably  monopolized  by 
active  leaders,  but  to  speak  prudent  words  on  great 
occasions,  which  would  command  the  respect,  if  they 
do  not  enlist  the  sympathies,  of  both  the  conflicting 
parties,  and  thus  insensibly  influence  the  public  mind. 
He  comprehended  and  accepted  the  position :  he 
knew  that  it  was  one  liable  to  be  misunderstood,  and 
sure  to  be  misrepresented  at  the  time ;  but  not  less 
sure  to  be  justified  when  the  interests  and  passions  of 
the  day  are  buried,  as  they  are  now  for  him,  beneath 
the  clods  of  the  valley. 

"  But  this  ostracism,  to  which  his  conservative  opin- 
ions condemned  him,  produced  not  a  shade  of  bitter- 
ness in  his  feelings.  His  patriotism  was  as  cheerful 
as  it  was  intense.  He  regarded  our  Confederated 
Republic,  with  its  wonderful  adjustment  of  State 
and  Federal  organization  —  the  States  bearing  the 
burden  and  descending  to  the  details  of  local  ad- 
ministration, the  General  Government  moulding 
the  whole  into  one  grand  nationality,  and  represent- 
ing it  in  the  family  of  nations  —  as  the  most  won- 


408  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS  CHOATE.  [CHAP.  X. 

derful  phenomenon  in  the  political  history  of  the 
world. 

"Too  much  a  statesman  to  join  the  unreflecting 
disparagement  with  which  other  great  forms  of 
national  polity  are  often  spoken  of  in  this  country,  he 
yet  considered  the  oldest,  the  wisest,  and  the  most 
successful  of  them,  the  British  Constitution,  as  a  far 
less  wonderful  political  system  than  our  Confederated 
Republic.  The  territorial  extent  of  the  country  ;  the 
beautiful  play  into  each  other  of  its  great  commercial, 
agricultural,  and  manufacturing  interests ;  the  mate- 
rial prosperity,  the  advancement  in  arts  and  letters 
and  manners,  already  made  ;  the  capacity  for  further 
indefinite  progress  in  this  vast  theatre  of  action  in 
which  Providence  has  placed  the  Anglo-American 
race,  —  stretching  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific, 
from  the  Arctic  circle  to  the  tropics,  —  were  themes 
on  which  he  dwelt  as  none  but  he  could  dwell ;  and 
he  believed  that  with  patience,  with  mutual  forbear- 
ance, with  a  willingness  to  think  that  our  brethren, 
however  widely  we  may  differ  from  them,  may  be  as 
honest  and  patriotic  as  ourselves,  our  common  country 
would  eventually  reach  a  height  of  prosperity  of  which 
the  world  as  yet  has  seen  no  example. 

"  With  such  gifts,  such  attainments,  and  such  a 
spirit,  he  placed  himself,  as  a  matter  of  course,  not 
merely  at  the  head  of  the  jurists  and  advocates,  but 
of  the  public  speakers  of  the  country.  After  listen- 
ing to  him  at  the  bar,  in  the  Senate,  or  upon  the 
academic  or  popular  platform,  you  felt  that  you  had 
heard  the  best  that  could  be  heard  in  either  place. 
That  mastery  which  he  displayed  at  the  forum  and 
in  the  deliberative  assembly  was  not  less  conspicuous 
in  every  other  form  of  public  address. 


1858-1859.]  ADDRESS   OF  MR.   EVERETT.  409 

"  As  happens  in  most  cases  of  eminent  jurists  and 
statesmen,  possessing  a  brilliant  imagination,  and  able 
to  adorn  a  severe  course  of  reasoning  with  the  charms 
of  a  glowing  fancy  and  a  sparkling  style,  it  was  some- 
times said  of  him,  as  it  was  said  before  him  of  Burke 
and  Erskine,  of  Ames  and  Pinkney,  —  that  he  was 
more  of  a  rhetorician  than  a  logician  ;  that  he  dealt  in 
words  and  figures  of  speech  more  than  in  facts  or  ar- 
guments. These  are  the  invidious  comments  by  which 
dull  or  prejudiced  men  seek  to  disparage  those  gifts 
which  are  farthest  from  their  own  reach. 

"  It  is,  perhaps,  by  his  discourses  on  academical  and 
popular  occasions  that  he  is  most  extensively  known  in 
the  community,  as  it  is  these  which  were  Jistened  to 
with  delighted  admiration  by  the  largest  audiences. 
He  loved  to  treat  a  pure  literary  theme  ;  and  he  knew 
how  to  throw  a  magic  freshness  —  like  the  cool  morn- 
ing dew  on  a  cluster  of  purple  grapes  —  over  the  most 
familiar  topics  at  a  patriotic  celebration.  Some  of 
these  occasional  performances  will  ever  be  held  among 
the  brightest  gems  of  our  literature.  The  eulogy  on 
Daniel  Webster  at  Dartmouth  College,  in  which  he 
mingled  at  once  all  the  light  of  his  genius  and  all  the 
warmth  of  his  heart,  has,  within  my  knowledge,  never 
been  equalled  among  the  performances  of  its  class  in 
this  country  for  sympathetic  appreciation  of  a  great 
man,  discriminating  analysis  of  character,  fertility  of 
illustration,  weight  of  sentiment,  and  a  style  at  once 
chaste,  nervous,  and  brilliant.  The  long  sentences 
which  have  been  criticised  in  this,  as  in  his  other  per- 
formances, are  like  those  which  Dr.  Channing  admired 
and  commended  in  Milton's  prose,  — well  compacted, 
full  of  meaning,  fit  vehicles  of  great  thoughts. 


410  MEMOIR  OF  KUFUS   CHOATE.  [CHAP.  X. 

"  But  he  does  not  deal  exclusively  in  those  ponder- 
ous sentences.  There  is  nothing  of  the  artificial, 
Johnsonian  balance  in  his  style.  It  is  as  often 
marked  by  a  pregnant  brevity  as  by  a  sonorous 
amplitude.  He  is  sometimes  satisfied,  in  concise, 
epigrammatic  clauses,  to  skirmish  with  his  light  troops 
and  drive  in  the  enemy's  outposts.  It  is  only  on  fit- 
ting occasions,  when  great  principles  are  to  be  vindi- 
cated and  solemn  truths  told,  when  some  moral  or 
political  Waterloo  or  Solferino  is  to  be  fought,  — 
that  he  puts  on  the  entire  panoply  of  his  gorgeous 
rhetoric.  It  is  then  that  his  majestic  sentences  swell 
to  the  dimensions  of  his  thought,  —  that  you  hear 
afar  off  the  awful  roar  of  his  rifled  ordnance,  and  — 
when  he  has  stormed  the  heights  and  broken  the 
centre  and  trampled  the  squares  and  turned  the 
staggering  wing  of  his  adversary,  —  that  he  sounds 
his  imperial  clarion  along  the  whole  line  of  battle,  and 
moves  forward  with  all  his  hosts  in  one  overwhelming 
charge. 

"  Our  friend  was,  in  all  the  personal  relations  of  life, 
the  most  unselfish  and  disinterested  of  men.  Com- 
manding, from  an  early  period,  a  valuable  clientage, 
and  rising  rapidly  to  the  summit  of  his  profession,  and 
to  the  best  practice  in  the  courts  of  Massachusetts, 
and  in  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  with 
no  expensive  tastes  or  habits,  and  a  manner  of  life 
highly  unostentatious  and  simple,  advancing  years 
overtook  him  with  but  slender  provision  for  their 
decline.  He  reaped  little  but  fame,  where  he  ought 
to  have  reaped  both  fame  and  fortune.  A  career 
which  in  England  would  have  been  crowned  with 
affluence,  and  probably  with  distinguished  rank  and 


1858-1859.]  ADDRESS    OF   MR.    EVERETT.  411 

office,  found  him  at  sixty  chained  to  the  treadmill  of 
laborious  practice. 

"  He  might,  indeed,  be  regarded  as  a  martyr  to  his 
profession.  He  gave  to  it  his  time,  his  strength,  and 
neglecting  due  care  of  regular  bodily  exercise  and 
occasional  entire  relaxation,  he  might  be  said  to  have 
given  to  it  his  life.  He  assumed  the  racking  anxie- 
ties and  feverish  excitements  of  his  clients.  From  the 
courts,  where  he  argued  the  causes  intrusted  to  him, 
with  all  the  energy  of  his  intellect,  rousing  into  corre- 
sponding action  an  overtasked  nervous  system,  these 
cares  and  anxieties  followed  him  to  the  weariness  of 
his  midnight  vigils,  and  the  unrest  of  his  sleepless 
pillow.  In  this  way  he  led  a  long  professional  career, 
worn  and  harassed  with  other  men's  cares,  and  sacri- 
ficed ten  added  years  of  active  usefulness  to  the  inten- 
sity with  which  he  threw  himself  into  the  discharge 
of  his  duties  in  middle  life. 

"  There  are  other  recollections  of  our  friend's  career, 
other  phases  of  his  character,  on  which  I  would  gladly 
dwell ;  but  the  hour  has  elapsed,  and  it  is  not  neces- 
sary. The  gentlemen  who  have  preceded  me,  his  pro- 
fessional brethren,  his  pastor,  the  press  of  the  country, 
generously  allowing  past  differences  of  opinion  to  be 
buried  in  his  grave,  have  more  than  made  up  for 
any  deficiency  in  my  remarks.  His  work  is  done,  — 
nobly,  worthily,  done.  Never  more  in  the  temples  of 
justice,  — never  more  in  the  Senate  Chamber,  —  never 
more  in  the  crowded  assembly,  —  never  more  in  this 
consecrated  hall,  where  he  so  often  held  listening 
crowds  in  rapt  admiration,  shall  we  catch  the  un- 
earthly glance  of  his  eye,  or  listen  to  the  strange 
sweet  music  of  his  voice.  To-morrow  we  shall  follow 


412  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS  CHOATE.          [CHAP.  X. 

him,  —  the  pure  patriot,  —  the  consummate  jurist,  — 
the  eloquent  orator,  — the  honored  citizen,  —  the  be- 
loved friend,  to  the  last  resting  place  ;  and  who  will 
not  feel,  as  we  lay  him  there,  that  a  brighter  genius 
and  a  warmer  heart  are  not  left  among  living  men ! " 
During  this  meeting,  the  steamboat  which  brought 
the  remains  from  Nova  Scotia  came  to  anchor  in  the 
harbor.  The  next  morning,  Saturday,  July  23,  a 
private  funeral  service  was  held  at  the  house  of  the 
deceased,  in  Winthrop  Place,  and  the  body  was  then 
taken  to  the  Essex  Street  Church,  where  a  funeral 
address  was  made  by  Rev.  Dr.  Nehemiah  Adams. 
The  service  was  attended  by  the  public  functionaries 
of  the  State,  by  the  judges  of  the  court,  the  members 
of  the  bar,  and  a  large  concourse  of  people.  These 
ceremonies  over,  the  body  was  borne,  with  every  tes- 
timonial of  respect,  —  the  booming  of  minute  guns, 
the  tolling  of  bells,  and  the  waving  of  flags  hung 
at  half-mast,  —  to  its  last  resting  place,  under  the 
shadows  of  Mount  Auburn. 


CHAP.  XI.]        LETTER  FROM  HON.  J.  H.  CLIFFORD.       413 


CHAPTER  XL 

Letter  from  Hon.  John  H.  Clifford  —  Reminiscences  of  Mr.  Choate'a 
Habits  in  his  Office  —  Thoroughness  of  Preparation  of  Cases  — 
Manner  of  Legal  Study  —  Intercourse  with  the  Younger  Members 
of  the  Bar  —  Manner  to  the  Court  and  the  Jury  —  Charges  and 
Income  —  Vocabulary  —  Wit  and  Humor  —  Anecdotes  —  Elo- 
quence—  Style  —  Note  from  Rev.  Joseph  Tracy  —  Memory  — 
Quotations  —  Fondness  for  Books  —  Reminiscences  by  a  Friend 
—  Life  at  Home  —  Conversation  — Religious  Feeling  and  Belief. 

IT  may  be  proper  to  present,  in  this  concluding  chap- 
ter, a  few  additional  testimonials,  and  briefly  to 
indicate  some  of  the  striking  characteristics  of  Mr. 
Choate,  for  which  a  place  could  not  be  found  in  the 
body  of  the  memoir  without  interrupting  the  course 
of  the  narrative. 

FROM  HON.  JOHN  H.  CLIFFORD. 

"NEW  BEDFORD,  Mass.,  October  26,  1860. 

"Mr  DEAR  SIR, —  It  gives  me  pleasure  to  comply  with 
your  request,  and  say  an  unstudied  word  of  remembrance  of 
my  professional  associate  and  friend. 

"  I  do  this  the  more  readily,  as  I  was  prevented  by  circum- 
stances from  participating  in  the  public  manifestations  of 
respect  and  sorrow,  from  my  brethren  of  the  bar,  and  other 
associations,  with  which  we  were  connected,  which  followed 
immediately  upon  his  death. 

"  In  reply  to  your  specific  inquiry,  respecting  the  selection 
to  be  made  from  Mr.  Choate's  arguments,  as  the  most  valu- 
able for  illustration  of  his  powers  and  quality  as  an  advocate, 
I  can  only  say  that  a  very  inadequate  and  unsatisfactory 
impression  of  either  can  be  derived  from  any  of  the  meagre 
reports  of  his  great  efforts  at  the  bar.  To  those  who  were 


414  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS  CHOATE.          [CHAP.  XI. 

familiar  with  his  wonderful  genius,  his  wealth  of  learning, 
his  genial  humor,  and  his  unparalleled  combinations  of  the 
most  brilliant  rhetoric  with  the  most  massive  logic,  the 
attempts  that  have  been  made  to  reproduce  them  have  been 
painfully  disproportionate  to  their  subject ;  while  upon  others 
they  can  hardly  fail  to  produce  a  belittling  and  disparaging 
impression  of  his  great  powers.  I  fear  that,  in  this  respect, 
his  fame  must  share  the  melancholy  fate  of  most  great  law- 
yers and  advocates,  to  be  taken  upon  trust,  and  as  a  tradition, 
by  posterity,  rather  than  to  be  verified  to  it  by  its  own  critical 
judgment  of  his  recorded  labors. 

"  In  regard  to  Mr.  Choate's  '  theory  of  advocacy,'  there 
has  been  much  ignorant  and  unconsidered  criticism  since  his 
death,  as  there  was,  indeed,  during  his  life.  In  the  remarks 
of  Judge  Curtis  to  the  Supreme  Judicial  Court  of  Massachu- 
setts, upon  the  presentation  of  the  resolutions  adopted  by  the 
bar  at  the  time  of  Mr.  Choate's  decease,  there  is  a  just  and 
most  satisfactory  exposition  of  the  true  theory  of  advocacy. 
Assuming  the  views  expressed  in  that  admirable,  address  to 
have  been  those  entertained  by  Mr.  Choate,  as  I  have  no 
doubt  they  were  in  substance,  it  seems  to  me  that  the  flippant 
denunciations  of  what  has  been  called  the  '  unscrupulous- 
ness  of  his  advocacy '  are  the  merest  cant  —  as  unsound  and 
untenable  in  the  view  which  they  imply  of  a  lawyer's  duty, 
as  they  are  unjust  to  his  memory. 

"  I  had  opportunities  of  observation,  for  many  years,  of  the 
practical  application  by  him  of  his  views  of  professional  obli- 
gation in  this  respect,  both  in  civil  and  criminal  cases,  almost 
always  as  an  adversary,  though  occasionally  as  an  associate. 
1  believe  that  a  conscientious  conviction  of  his  duty  led  him, 
at  times,  to  accept  retainers  in  the  latter  class  of  cases,  when 
the  service  to  be  performed  was  utterly  repugnant  and  dis- 
tasteful to  him.  As  a  striking  confirmation  of  this  opinion,  I 
may  state  that,  in  1853,  when  I  vacated  the  office  of  Attorney- 
General,  to  assume  the  administration  of  the  Executive 
Department  of  the  government,  it  was  intimated  to  me  by  a 
common  friend  that  the  place  would  be  agreeable  to  Mr. 
Choate.  I,  of  course,  had  no  hesitation  in  promptly  availing 
myself  of  this  opportunity  of  making  the  conceded  chief  of 
the  bar  its  official  head.  Upon  tendering  to  him  the  appoint- 
ment, which  was  unhesitatingly  and  gracefully  accepted,  I 
learned  that  one  of  the  principal  inducements,  leading  him  to 
assume  the  post,  while  he  was  under  the  weightiest  pressure 


CHAP.  XI  ]       LETTER   FROM   HON.   J.    H.   CLIFFORD.     415 

of  private  practice,  was  the  avenue  of  escape  which  it  afforded 
him  from  the  defence  of  criminal  causes.  "  Regarding  the 
profession  of  his  choice  as  an  office,  and  not  as  a  trade,  he  felt 
that  he  was  not  at  liberty,  when  pressed  by  the  friends  of 
parties  accused  of  crime,  to  refuse  his  services  to  submit  their 
defence  to  the  proper  tribunal,  merely  because  this  depart- 
ment of  professional  labor  was  not  agreeable  to  him,  while 
the  acceptance  of  the  post  of  public  prosecutor  would  give  him 
an  honorable  discharge  from  this  field  of  practice. 

"  It  is  rare  for  a  person  whose  life,  like  his,  had  been  spent 
almost  exclusively  in  the  practice  of  his  profession,  to  secure 
the  affectionate  attachment  of  so  large  and  diversified  a  body 
of  friends.  Much  as  he  was  devoted  to  books,  he  saw  more 
of  the  various  classes  of  men,  from  every  one  of  which  there 
were  sincerer  mourners  over  his  bier  than  falls  to  the  lot  of 
most  great  lawyers.  This  arose  from  his  varied  and  exten- 
sive clientage,  and  the  broad  range  of  his  practice.  An 
English  barrister,  who  is  confined  almost  exclusively  to  a 
particular  circuit,  and  under  their  system  of  minute  subdivision 
of  labor,  frequently  to  one  class  of  causes,  can  with  difficulty 
comprehend  the  life  of  one  who,  like  Mr.  Choate,  was  familiar 
with  all  the  judicial  tribunals  of  a  country  like  ours,  from  the 
highest  to  the  lowest,  Federal  and  State,  and  with  every 
department  of  the  law,  in  all  its  diversified  relations  to  'the 
business  and  bosoms  of  men.'  Still  more  difficult  is  it  for  him 
to  conceive  how  a  practitioner  in  such  a  wide  field  as  this 
could  be,  as  Mr.  Choate  incontestably  was,  facile  princeps, 
wherever  he  appeared. 

"  The  highest  proof  of  his  superiority  is  to  be  found  in  the 
united  testimony  of  those  who  '  stood  nearest  to  him.'  And 
no  one  who  witnessed  the  manifestations  of  respect  for  his 
great  powers,  and  of  affection  for  the  man,  which  were  exhib- 
ited by  his  brethren  of  the  bar,  upon  receiving  the  sad  intelli- 
gence that  he  was  to  be  with  them  no  more  on  earth,  can 
doubt  the  sincerity  with  which  they  assigned  to  him  the  first 
place  among  this  generation  of  American  lawyers. 

"  For  myself,  I  count  it  as  one  of  the  privileges  and 
felicities  of  my  professional  life,  that  Rufus  Choate  was  my 
contemporary,  associate,  and  friend. 

"  I  am,  dear  Sir,  with  sincere  respect,  truly  yours, 

"JOHN  H.  CLIFFORD. 
"  PROF.  S.  G.  BROWN." 


416  MEMOIR   OF  RUFUS  CHOATE.          [CHAP.  XL 

Mr.  Choate's  business  was  almost  wholly  connected 
with  cases  in  court.  It  might  be  said  that  he  had  no 
conveyancing,  almost  no  drawing  up  of  contracts  or 
wills,  and  very  rare  occasions  for  giving  written 
opinions.  Comparatively  few  cases  were  commenced 
in  the  office.  Most  of  his  business  was  the  result  of 
outside  retainers  in  cases  commenced,  or  to  be  com- 
menced, by  other  counsel,  or  in  defending  cases  already 
commenced. 

Of  Mr.  Choate's  habits  in  his  office  and  in  the 
courts,  a  memorandum,  by  his  son-in-law  and  part- 
ner, Joseph  M.  Bell,  Esq.,  will  afford  the  best  possible 
information. 

"  When  I  went  to  him,"  says  Mr.  Bell,  "  in  Jan- 
uary, 1849,  we  took  an  office,  at  7|-  Tremont  Row, 
then  entirely  out  of  the  range  of  the  fraternity.  His 
habits  then  were  these  :  Regularly  at  nine  o'clock  (or, 
if  to  go  into  court,  a  trifle  earlier)  he  came  to  the 
office,  and  spent  the  morning  there.  Generally  his 
room  was  filled  with  clients.  If  not,  he  was  busily 
engaged  in  preparing  his  cases  for  trial  or  argument ; 
or,  if  no  immediate  necessity  existed  for  this,  a  care- 
ful examination  of  the  latest  text-books  and  reports 
was  made,  or  a  course  of  study,  already  marked  out, 
pursued.  He  was  rarely  idle  for  a  moment,  and  by 
this  I  mean  he  was  rarely  without  book  and  pen  in 
hand.  He  studied  pen  in  hand,  rarely  sitting  down 
with  book  alone.  He  had  an  old,  high,  pine  desk, 
such  as  were  in  lawyer's  offices  many  years  ago, 
which  he  specially  prized.  It  had  been  used  by 
Judge  Prescott,  —  the  father  of  William  H.  Prescott, 
—  in  Salem,  and  perhaps  by  other  lawyers  before  him. 
Upon  its  top  there  was  a  row  of  pigeon-holes  for 


CHAP.  XI.]  HABITS   IN   HIS   OFFICE.  417 

papers.  A  tall  counting-house  chair,  with  the  front 
legs  some  three  inches  shorter  than  the  back  ones,  so 
as  to  incline  the  seat  forward,  enabled  him  to  keep  in 
nearly  a  standing  position  at  the  desk,  and  there,  and 
in  that  position,  come  upon  him  when  you  might,  he 
was  to  be  found,  pen  in  hand,  hard  at  work.  He  was 
patient  of  interruption,  beyond  any  man  I  ever  met. 
Unless  specially  engaged  upon  matters  which  brooked 
no  delay,  his  time  and  learning  were  at  the  disposal 
of  the  poorest  and  most  ignorant.  It  was  very  rarely 
indeed  that  I  heard  him  say  to  any  one,  '  I  cannot 
attend  to  you  now'  The  old  desk  alluded  to,  I  suc- 
ceeded in  getting  out  of  his  office  ;  but  one  not  much 
better  took  its  place.  If  a  person  came  into  his  office 
with  a  case,  his  invariable  habit,  when  possible,  was 
to  converse  with  him  pen  in  hand,  and  write  down 
every  particular  bearing  upon  it.  If  the  case  in- 
volved doubt,  as  soon  as  the  client  had  gone,  he  made, 
aut  per  se  aut  per  alium,  a  strict  examination  of  the 
law,  of  which  he  made  a  careful  record.  He  may  be 
said  to  have  studied  all  his  cases  all  the  time.  He 
never  seemed  to  have  one  of  them  out  of  mind  for  an 
instant.  If,  in  reading  law,  or  any  thing  else,  diverso 
intuito,  any  thing  occurred  which  could  be  useful  in 
any  of  his  numerous  cases,  down  it  went  upon  some 
of  the  papers —  Greek  to  the  world,  but  clear  to  him. 
And  this  leads  me  to  say  that  in  all  the  apparent  con- 
fusion of  his  papers,  there  was  the  utmost  regularity, 
after  his  kind.  He  was  a  great  lover  of  order,  and 
strove  hard  for  it,  but  there  seemed  to  be  a  certain 
mechanical  dexterity  of  which  he  was  destitute.  I 
think  it  would  have  been  impossible  for  him  to  fold 
regularly  half  a  dozen  sheets  of  paper.  His  papers 

27 


418  MEMOIR  OF   RUFUS   CHOATE.          [CHAP.  XL 

were  tied  together  in  a  confused  mass  ;  but  they  were 
all  there,  and  he  could  find  them.  Untie  and  arrange 
them  in  order,  and  he  liked  it ;  but  the  first  time  the 
parcel  was  re-opened  by  him  it  returned  to  its  original 
condition.  But  this  was  want  of  manual  dexterity 
only.  He  was  ever  striving  to  have  his  office  regular 
and  orderly,  like  other  offices,  but  without  effect.1 

"  For  a  year  or  so  after  going  in  with  him,  I  rarely 
saw  him  at  the  office  in  the  afternoon.  He  was  in 
the  habit  of  going  to  the  Athenaeum,  and  other  places 
where  books  were  to  be  found.  After  that  time,  he 
was  at  the  office  afternoon  as  well  as  forenoon,  unless 
occupied  in  the  law  outside.  His  cheerfulness  was 
constant;  and  he  never  appeared  in  greater  spirits 
than  when  every  thing  seemed  tangled  and  snarled 
beyond  extrication.  Little  things  sometimes  troubled 
him ;  real  difficulties,  never.  He  did  and  wanted 
every  thing  done  on  the  instant ;  and  if  this  could  not 
be  brought  about,  he  would  often  seem  to  lose  all 
interest  in  it.  I  have  often  been  astonished  at  his 
willingness  to  perform  every  one's  work.  That  never 
seemed  to  trouble  him ;  and  it  was  a  rare  thing  to 
hear  him  complain  of  others.  In  regard  to  his  court 
engagements,  he  was  promptitude  itself.  No  one 
ever  knew  him  a  minute  behind  time,  if  by  possibility 
he  could  come  at  all.  He  had  a  method  of  imparting 
instruction,  peculiar  to  a  race  of  legal  giants  now 
passed  away,  by  short,  pithy,  or  sarcastic  and  ironical 

1  He  was  entirely  aware  of  this  himself.  Speaking  once  of  the 
officer  known  to  the  English  Court  of  Common  Pleas  as  the  Filacer, 
or  Filazier,  so  called  because  he  files  those  writs  on  which  he  makes 
out  process,  he  playfully  remarked,  "  There  would  be  little  use  for 
such  a  person  in  our  office."  And  yet  he  generally  could  put  his 
hand  at  once  upon  what  he  wanted. 


CHAP.  XL]  PREPARATION   OF  CASES.  419 

sentences.  You  were  often  to  determine  his  meaning 
rather  by  what  he  did  not  say  than  from  what  he  did. 
I  have  heard  him  talk  an  Jiour  in  this  way ;  and  if  one 
had  taken  in  sober  earnest  what  he  said  for  what  he 
meant,  he  would  have  made  a  slight  mistake.  The 
gravest  law  talk,  with  one  who  could  understand  him, 
was  fun  alive. 

"  With  his  vast  command  of  language,  he  delighted 
to  use  some  expressive  slang  phrase  in  familiar  con- 
versation. I  remember  one  that  tickled  him  hugely. 
A  man  in  the  office  told  him  a  story  of  'some  fight 
that  he  was  a  witness  of;  and  after  describing  it 
graphically,  said,  *  And  then  the  stones  flew  my  way, 
and  I  dug?  He  never  could  resist  the  use  of  this  last 
expression,  and  never  used  it  without  laughing  heart- 
ily. And  this  reminds  me  that  I  rarely — I  may  say 
never  —  heard  him  laugh  out  loud.  He  would  throw 
his  head  back,  open  his  mouth  wide,  and  draw  in  his 
breath  with  a  deep  respiratory  sound,  while  his  whole 
face  glowed  with  fun. 

"  He  rarely  left  his  office  to  pass  a  half-hour  in 
another's,  except  on  business.  He  took  a  great  many 
papers  and  periodicals  at  the  office,  but  seldom  read 
one.  Sometimes  they  went  into  the  fire  in  the  origi- 
nal wrappers. 

"  Mr.  Choate's  method  of  preparing  his  cases  for 
trial  and  argument  depended  so  much  upon  the  vary- 
ing circumstances  of  the  cases,  that  it  is  very  difficult 
to  say  that  he  had  any  particular  plan.  But  this 
always  was  his  practice,  when  he  had  time  for  it :  — 

"  If  for  the  plaintiff,  a  strict  examination  of  all  the 
pleadings,  if  the  case  had  been  commenced  by  others, 
was  immediately  made,  and,  so  far  as  practicable,  per- 


420  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS   CHOATE.         [CHAP.  XL 

sonal  examination  of  the  principal  witnesses,  —  accu- 
rate study  of  the  exact  questions  raised  by  the  plead- 
ings, and  a  thorough  and  exhaustive  preparation  of 
all  the  law  upon  those  questions.  This  preparation 
completed,  the  papers  were  laid  aside  until  the  day  of 
trial  approached.  At  that  time  a  thorough  re-exami- 
nation of  the  facts,  law,  and  pleadings  had  to  be  made. 
He  was  never  content  until  every  thing  which  might 
by  possibility  bear  upon  the  case  had  been  carefully 
investigated,  and  this  investigation  had  been  brought 
down  to  the  last  moment  before  the  trial. 

"  If  for  the  defence,  the  pleadings  were  first  exam- 
ined and  reconstructed,  if  in  his  judgment  necessary, 
and  as  careful  an  examination  of  the  law  made  as  in 
the  other  case. 

"  In  his  preparation  for  the  argument  of  a  question 
of  law,  he  could  never  be  said  to  have  finished  it  until 
the  judgment  had  been  entered  by  the  court.  It  com- 
menced with  the  knowledge  that  the  argument  was  to 
be  made ;  and  from  that  time  to  the  entry  of  the  judg- 
ment, the  case  never  seemed  to  be  out  of  his  mind ; 
and  whenever  and  wherever  a  thought  appropriate  to 
the  case  occurred  to  him,  it  was  noted  for  use.  It 
would  often  happen  that  the  case  was  nearly  reached 
for  argument  at  one  term  of  the  court ;  every  possible 
preparation  having  been  made  and  the  brief  printed ; 
yet  the  term  would  end  and  the  case  not  come  on. 
The  former  preparation  then  made  but  a  starting 
point  for  him.  At  the  next  term  a  fuller  brief 
appeared ;  and  this  might  happen  several  times.  The 
finished  brief  of  the  evening  had  to  be  altered  and 
added  to  in  the  morning ;  and  it  frequently  went  into 
the  hands  of  the  court  with  the  undried  ink  of  his  last 


CHAP.  XL]  PREPARATION   OF   CASES.  421 

citations.  If,  after  argument,  a  case  uncited  then  was 
discovered,  or  if  a  new  view  of  it  occurred  to  him,  the 
court  was  instantly  informed  of  it. 

"  And  so  in  the  trial  of  a  case  at  nisi  prius.  Every 
intermission  called  for  a  full  examination  of  every 
law-book  which  could  possibly  bear  upon  questions 
already  before  the  court,  or  which  he  purposed  to 
bring  before  it.  No  difficulty  in  procuring  a  book 
which  treated  upon  the  question  before  him  ever  hin- 
dered him ;  it  was  a  mere  question  of  possibility. 

"  He  had  a  plan  for  the  trial  of  every  case,  to  which 
he  clung  from  the  start,  and  to  which  every  thing 
bent.  That  plan  often  appeared  late  in  the  case,  per- 
haps upon  his  filing  his  prayer  to  the  court  for  special 
rulings  to  the  jury.  But  that  plan  was  at  any  time 

—  no  matter  how  much  labor  had  been  put  into  it  — 
instantly  thrown  over,  and  a  new  one  adopted,  if,  in 
his  judgment,  it  was  better.     He  bent  the  whole  case 
to  his  theory  of  the  law  of  it ;  and,  if  accidentally  a 
new  fact  appeared  which  would  enable  him  to  use  a 
clearer  principle  of  law,  the  last  from  that  moment 
became  his  case.    I  remember  perfectly  an  example  of 
his  quickness  and  boldness  in  this  respect.    In  an  insur- 
ance case,  we  were  for  the  plaintiff.    A  vessel  had  been 
insured  for  a  year,  with  a  warranty  that  she  should 
not  go  north  of  the  Okhotsk  Sea.    Within  the  year 
she  was  burned  north  of  the  limits  of  the  Okhotsk  Sea 
proper,  but  south  of  the  extreme  limits  of  some  of  that 
sea's  adjacent  gulfs.     The  defendant  set  up  that  there 
was  no  loss  within  the  limits  of  the  policy ;  and  nu- 
merous witnesses  had  been  summoned  by  both  parties, 

—  on  our  side  to  show  that  by  merchants  the  Okhotsk 
Sea  was  considered  to  include  the  bays  and  gulfs ;  on 


422  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS  CHOATE.         [CHAP.  XL 

the  other  side,  to  prove  the  contrary.  A  protracted 
trial  was  expected,  and  every  thing  had  been  prepared. 
As  we  were  walking  to  the  court-house,  he  said, '  Why 
should  we  prove  that  we  were  not  north  of  that  sea  ? 
—  why  not  let  them  prove  that  we  were  ?  What  do 
you  think  of  it ? '  —  'It  seems  to  be  the  right  way, 
certainly,'  said  I.  'Let  us  do  it,  —  open  the  case  on 
that  idea.'  I  did  so,  and  put  on  the  mate  to  prove 
the  burning  at  a  certain  time  within  the  year.  No 
cross-examination  followed,  and  we  rested  our  case. 
The  other  sidft  was  dumbfounded.  They  had  ex- 
pected that  we  should  be  at  least  two  days  putting  in 
our  case  on  the  other  theory,  and  had  no  witnesses  at 
hand.  They  fought  our  plan  stoutly ;  but  the  court 
was  with  us,  and  they  were  obliged  to  submit  to  a 
verdict  in  our  favor.  The  case  lasted  one  hour. 

"  In  many  cases  I  have  known  him  to  dismiss  wit- 
nesses that  had  been  summoned  for  proof  of  particular 
facts,  because  he  had  changed  his  plan,  and  would  not 
require  them. 

"  One  of  the  most  striking  characteristics  of  Mr. 
Choate  was  the  tenacity  with  which  he  persisted  in 
trying  a  case  once  -commenced,  under  no  matter  what 
disadvantages.  If  a  case  seemed  untenable,  and  in- 
deed always  before  suit,  he  was  very  willing  to  settle. 
Divorce  cases  and  family  disturbances,  and  suits  be- 
tween friends,  he  strained  every  nerve  to  adjust  before 
they  became  public,  and  even  after.  But  when  a  case 
was  fairly  before  the  court,  he  seemed  absolutely  to 
hate  the  idea  of  a  compromise,  and  never  felt  the  case 
lost  so  long  as  there  was  standing  in  court.  No  matter 
how  hopeless  seemed  the  chance  of  success,  he  would 
say,  '  It  will  never  do  to  say  die,'  and  plunge  boldly 


CHAP.  XL]  PREPARATION   OF   CASES.  423 

into  the  trial.  And  it  was  astonishing  to  find  him  so 
often  successful  where  there  seemed  no  hope.  While 
a  trial  was  going  on  in  court,  every  word  of  every 
witness  was  taken  down,  and  every  legal  incident 
noted.  This  was  taken  home,  and  before  the  court 
opened  the  next  day,  arranged  and  studied,  and  his 
argument  commenced  and  kept  along  with  the  days 
of  trial,  often  changed  and  re-written.  He  kept  loose 
paper  by  him  in  court,  on  which  were  jotted  down 
questions  for  witnesses,  and  ideas  of  all  kinds  con- 
nected with  the  case."  l 

1  The  following  account  is  from  the  pen  of  Judge  Enoch  L.  Fan- 
cher,  contained  in  a  letter  to  Judge  Neilson,  and  published  in  the 
"  Albany  Law  Journal,"  March  17,  1877. 

"  I  knew  Mr.  Choate  :  visited  him  at  his  residence  in  Boston,  and 
spent  some  time  in  consultation  with  him  in  the  Methodist  Church 
case,  which  was  tried  in  New  York  in  May,  1851.  Being  one  of  my 
first  cases  of  importance,  I  took  pains  to  become  acquainted  with  the 
facts,  and  went  to  Boston  to  engage  Mr.  Choate  as  chief  counsel. 
After  a  conversation  in  his  office,  the  interview  was  adjourned  to  his 
house,  where,  at  four  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  I  met  him  in  his 
library,  and  he  commenced  a  series  of  questions,  standing  at  an  up- 
right desk.  His  hand  was  drawn  up  as  high  as  his  shoulder,  and 
from  that  hour  till  ten  o'clock  at  night,  with  the  exception  of  about 
thirty  minutes  while  we  were  at  the  tea-table,  he  continued  his 
incisive  questions  touching  the  government  of  the  Methodist  Episco- 
pal Church,  its  peculiar  economy,  and  the  questions  involved  in  this 
case  between  the  North  and  the  South.  He  at  once  manifested  great 
interest  in  the  case  ;  spoke  with  much  earnestness  in  reference  to  it ; 
said  that  it  involved  so  many  important  questions  that  he  felt  it  to  be 
one  of  the  greatest  cases  that  he  had  ever  studied.  He  would  stop 
me  in  the  middle  of  a  sentence  by  holding  up  his  hand,  and,  after 
writing  what  I  had  said,  would  ask  me  to  go  on  from  the  very  part 
of  the  sentence  that  had  been  broken  to  the  end  of  it. 

"  His  enthusiasm  was  so  great,  that  I  found  it  a  pleasure  to 
reveal  to  him  all  I  knew  of  the  subject  under  examination.  During 
the  course  of  the  evening,  a  hand-organ  was  playing  in  the  street 
under  the  window.  He  sprang  to  the  bell,  spoke  to  his  servant,  and 
said,  'John,  go  and  hire  that  man  to  go  out  of  the  street,'  at  the  same 


424  MEMOIR  OF  EUFUS  CHOATE.          [CHAP.  XL 

As  might  be  inferred  from  this,  his  notes  were  gen- 
erally very  ample  and  complete.  To  a  student  who 
was  going  to  take  the  depositions  of  some  witnesses 
where  he  could  not  be  present,  he  said,  "  Take  down 
every  adjective,  adverb,  and  interjection  that  the  wit- 
nesses utter."  His  brief,  too,  was  always  full,  though 
in  addressing  a  jury  he  was  entirely  untrammelled, 
and  often  hardly  referred  to  it.  In  addressing  the 
court  he  sometimes  seemed  to  follow  his  notes  closely, 
almost  as  if  he  were  repeating  them,  laying  aside  page 
after  page  as  he  proceeded. 

In  determining  the  theory  of  his  case,  he  was  never 

time  giving  him  fifty  cents.  After  this  visit  at  Boston,  he  came  to 
see  me  in  the  city  of  New  York.  We  had  another  interview,  in 
reference  to  the  case,  at  my  residence.  It  was  wonderful  to  see  him 
seize,  as  by  intuition,  the  chief  points  of  the  great  controversy  in- 
volved in  that  case.  It  was  still  more  wonderful  to  listen  to  his 
magnificent  oratory,  when  he  argued  the  case,  bringing  into  view 
almost  every  fact  I  had  repeated  to  him  in  Boston,  and  in  my  other 
interviews  with  him.  The  trial  was  in  the  Circuit  Court  of  the  United 
States,  at  New  York.  It  lasted  several  days.  During  the  trial  Mr. 
Choate  became  unwell,  and  was  obliged  to  go  to  his  hotel,  while  a 
portion  of  the  argument  of  Mr.  Lord  was  made.  He  requested  me  to 
write  down  every  word  Mr.  Lord  said,  and  bring  it  to  him.  I  did  so, 
and,  at  the  same  time,  found  Mr.  Choate  sick  in  bed,  with  a  physi- 
cian in  attendance,  who  was  prescribing  calomel,  and  asked  Mr. 
Choate  how  large  a  dose  he  was  accustomed  to  take.  Choate  replied 
that  he  did  not  know,  but  said,  '  Give  me  the  largest  dose  you  ever 
gave  a  man  in  your  life.'  'The  next  day  he  rose  from  his  sick  bed, 
curne  into  court,  and  began  the  grand  argument  which  he  made  in 
the  case,  which  lasted  during  the  entire  day,  and  nearly  all  the  fol- 
lowing day.  While  he  was  speaking,  the  perspiration,  like  rain- 
drops, fell  from  his  bushy  hair  all  over  the  paper  on  which  I  was 
writing.  Taking  it  altogether,  that  was  the  greatest  speech  I  ever 
heard.  Some  of  the  tones  of  his  voice  were  more  than  arguments 
of  themselves.  His  classical  allusions,  his  eloquent  flights,  his  mag- 
nificent argument  and  beautiful  illustrations,  combined  to  entrance 
the  court  and  auditors." 


CHAP.  XL]  HIS   MANNER   IN   COURT.  425 

satisfied  until  he  had  met  every  supposition  that  could 
be  brought  against  it.  But  he  had  no  love  for  a 
theory  because  it  was  his  own,  however  great  the 
labor  it  had  cost  him,  but  was  perfectly  ready  to 
throw  it  aside  for  another,  when  that  appeared  better. 
This  change  of  front  he  sometimes  made  in  the  midst 
of  the  trial,  under  the  eye  of  the  court,  and  in  the  face 
of  a  watchful  and  eager  antagonist.  He  was  never 
more  self-possessed,  nor  seemed  to  have  his  entire 
faculties  more  fully  at  command,  nor  to  exercise  a 
more  consummate  judgment,  than  when  in  the  very 
heat  of  a  strongly  contested  case,  where  a  mistake 
would  have  been  fatal.  In  the  preparation  of  a  case 
he  left  nothing  to  chance  ;  and  his  juniors  sometimes 
found  themselves  urged  to  a  fidelity  and  constancy 
of  labor  to  which  they  had  not  been  accustomed. 

In  his  cases,  it  was  not  the  magnitude  of  the  in- 
terests involved,  and  certainly  not  the  hope  of  fame 
or  of  pecuniary  reward,  that  seemed  to  move  him,  so 
much  as  a  certain  inward  impulse,  a  spirit  and  fire 
whose  energy  was  untiring  and  resistless.  The  action 
of  his  mind  was  its  own  reward.  He  was  like  a  blood 
horse.  Once  on  the  course,  the  nervous  force  was 
uncontrollable  whether  thousands  were  at  stake  or  it 
was  a  mere  movement  for  pleasure.  Hence  into  cases 
of  comparatively  little  consequence,  before  referees, 
or  a  commissioner,  or  a  judge  in  chambers,  with  no 
audience  to  stimulate  him,  he  threw  the  whole  force 
and  brilliancy  of  his  powers.  Nothing  less  would 
satisfy  himself,  however  it  might  be  with  court  or 
client. 

"One  of  the  last  times  I  heard  him,"  says  his  honor 
Chief  Justice  Chapman,  "  was  in  a  matter  relating  to 


426  MEMOIK   OF   RUFUS   CHOATE.        [CHAP.  XI. 

the  railroad  crossings  and  depots  in  the  northern  part 
of  Boston.  It  was  before  commissioners,  in  one  of  the 
rooms  of  the  Boston  and  Maine  depot,  with  the 
opposing  counsel  and  two  or  three  officers  of  rail- 
road corporations  present ;  and  he  displayed  on  that 
occasion  some  of  the  richest  and  most  beautiful 
specimens  of  his  oratory.  It  would  have  charmed 
a  popular  audience." 

In  intercourse  with  junior  counsel,  no  one  could  be 
more  unselfish  and  generous.  He  assumed  their  diffi- 
culties, protected  them  if  necessary,  often  insisting  to 
the  client  that  the  junior  was  fully  equal  to  the  case, 
and  after  the  case  was  won  yielding  to  him  a  full 
share  of  the  honor. 

"  He  was  the  best  senior  counsel,"  said  an  eminent 
lawyer,1  "  that  ever  lived.  Other  men  almost  always 
make  you  feel  that  you  are  second  ;  he  so  made  sug- 
gestions that  you  seemed  to  come  to  the  knowledge 
of  your  own  motion.  If  you  came  to  him  with  a  prop- 
osition which  could  not  be  sustained,  instead  of  say- 
ing, '  That's  not  the  law,'  he  would  begin  by  asking 
you  questions,  or  by  making  statements  to  which  you 
at  once  assented,  till  he  led  you  round  to  a  point  just 
the  opposite  of  that  from  which  you  started." 

"  How  often  I  think  of  Choate  !  "  writes  one  of  the 
most  distinguished  of  the  3*ounger  members  of  the 
bar,  a  few  months  after  his  death.  "You  do  not 
know  what  a  hold  he  had  on  me,  or  rather  what 
a  necessity  of  life  he  had  become  to  me.  When  I  have 
seen  any  thing  peculiar  in  the  development  of  human 
nature,  of  social  or  political  systems,  I  have  thought, 
'  I  will  tell  that  to  Choate  '  —  and  then,  —  Is  he  in- 
1  Mr.  Justice  Lord. 


CHAP.  XL]  HIS  MANNER  IN   COURT.  427 

deed  dead  ?  gone  —  never  to  be  seen,  or  heard,  or  con- 
versed with  again  ?  All  that  wisdom  and  wit,  —  that 
kindness  to  me,  as  of  a  father  or  elder  brother  ?  Is  it 
possible  ?  I  tell  you,  my  dear  friend,  if  I  pass  the 
rest  of  my  life  at  the  Boston  bar,  —  life  will  be  a 
different  thing  to  me  without  Choate." 

Never  assuming  pre-eminence,  or  standing  upon  his 
dignity,  he  was  on  the  kindest  and  most  familiar  terms 
with  his  brethren  at  the  bar.  The  morning  after  his 
letter  to  the  Whigs  of  Maine  appeared  in  the  news- 
papers, a  brother-lawyer  —  a  Democrat  —  suddenly 
opened  the  door  of  his  office,  and  saluted  him  with 
the  question :  "  Well,  Mr.  Choate,  how  was  it,  — 
money  down,  or  bond  and  mortgage  ?  "  No  one  rel- 
ished such  a  sally  more  than  he. 

It  did  not  disturb  him  to  interrupt  him.  When 
you  came  into  his  office,  he  would  turn  from  his 
papers  with  some  joke,  a  cant  phrase  or  word  (such 
as  "  flabbergasted  "),  recreate  himself  by  some  witty 
speech,  quiz  you  a  little  playfully,  and  then  turn  back 
again  to  his  work. 

During  the  progress  of  a  trial,  though  intently 
watchful  of  all  the  proceedings,  he  was  abounding  in 
good-nature  and  courtesy.  "  If  his  wit  and  pleas- 
antry in  the  court-room,"  said  one  of  the  most  emi- 
nent of  his  profession,  "  could  be  gathered  up,  they 
would  be  unsurpassed  in  all  the  annals  of  the  law." 
His  addresses  to  the  jury  were  singularly  impas- 
sioned ;  every  muscle  of  his  frame  quivered  with 
emotion ;  the  perspiration  stood  in  drops  even  upon 
the  hair  of  his  head.1  Yet  he  was  always  dignified 

1  Always  after  speaking  he  was  obliged  to  wrap  himself  up  in  two 
or  three  overcoats  to  prevent  taking  cold,  and  almost  always  after  a 
strong  effort  suffered  from  an  attack  of  siclf-headache. 


428  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS  CHOATE.         [CHAP.  XL 

and  conciliatory,  as  if  speaking  to  friends.  To  wit- 
nesses he  was  unfailingly  courteous,  seldom  severe 
even  with  the  most  reluctant,  but  drawing  from  them 
the  evidence  by  the  skill  of  his  examination.  In 
cross-examining,  he  knew  by  instinct  when  a  witness 
testified  to  what  he  knew,  or  only  what  he  thought  he 
knew.  To  the  latter  point  he  always  directed  his 
inquiries  so  as  to  bring  out  the  exact  state  of  the  case. 
To  the  Bench  he  was  remarkable  for  deference  in 
manner,  and  quietness,  felicity  and  precision  in  lan- 
guage. I  happened  once  to  go  into  the  Supreme 
Court-room,  when  not  more  than  a  dozen  persons 
were  present,  and  many  of  them  officials,  but  all  the 
judges  were  upon  the  bench,  and  Mr.  Choate  was 
standing  at  a  table  before  them,  arguing  a  question 
of  law.  He  stood  erect  and  quiet,  made  no  gesture 
except  a  slight  movement  of  the  right  hand  from  the 
wrist,  nor  changed  his  position  except  when  necessary 
to  obtain  a  book  for  an  authority,  but  spoke  for  more 
than  an  hour  in  a  low,  clear,  musical  voice,  with  a 
felicity  of  language,  a  logical  precision,  a  succinctness 
of  statement,  a  constantly  expanding  and  advancing 
movement  of  thought,  and  a  gentle,  slightly  exhilarat- 
ing warmth  of  feeling,  which  I  never  heard  equalled, 
and  which  was  even  more  fascinating  than  his  appeals 
to  the  jury.  His  motions  and  gestures  were,  as  I 
have  said,  vehement,  but  not  affected  nor  ungraceful. 
They  were  a  part  of  himself,  one  with  his  style  and 
method.  The  sweep  of  his  arm,  the  tremulous  hand, 
the  rising  and  settling  of  his  body,  the  dignified  tread, 
the  fascinating  eye,  the  tone,  gentle,  musical,  persua- 
sive, vehement,  ringing,  never  querulous,  never  bitter 
—  all  sprang  from  the  nature  of  the  man,  spontane- 


CHAP.  XI.]    REFUSAL  OF  DOUBTFUL  CASES.      429 

ous  and  irrepressible.  Never  was  there  a  speaker 
less  artificial. 

Mr.  Choate's  knowledge  of  his  profession  never 
grew  more  rapidly  and  more  solidly  than  during  the 
last  ten  years  of  his  life.  In  the  midst  of  ever-increas- 
ing labors,  he  found  time  for  constant  and  careful 
study  of  the  science  of  the  law.  On  the  appearance 
of  a  new  volume  of  the  Massachusetts  Reports,  he 
was  accustomed  to  take  every  important  case  on 
which  he  had  not  been  emplo}red,  make  a  full  brief 
upon  each  side,  draw  up  a  judgment,  and,  finally, 
compare  his  work  with  the  briefs  and  judgments  re- 
ported. This  was  a  settled  habit  for  many  years  be- 
fore he  died.  To  say  that  he  had  a  high  sense  of 
professional  honor  would  only  ascribe  to  him  a  virtue 
that  is  not  rare  in  the  American  bar ;  yet  few,  per- 
haps, have  had  a  clearer  or  more  refined  and  delicate 
apprehension  of  the  proprieties  and  ethics  of  the  pro- 
fession. He  held  an  exalted  idea  of  the  office  and 
duties  of  an  advocate.  "  The  order  of  advocates  is  as 
ancient  as  the  office  of  the  judge,  as  noble  as  virtue, 
and  as  necessary  as  justice."  So  wrote  the  great 
jurist  of  France,  D'Aguesseau  ;  and  so  have  ever  felt 
the  wisest  and  most  upright  judges  of  law  and  equity. 

During  the  latter  part  of  his  career,  he  was  more  re- 
luctant to  undertake  doubtful  criminal  cases.  Though 
accepting  every  clear  duty  of  his  profession,  he  held 
himself  more  in  reserve.  This  was  partly  because  of 
his  constant  and  intense  occupation,  partly  because  his 
tastes  led  him  to  other  branches  of  the  profession,  and 
in  part,  perhaps,  because  he  had  to  contend  against  his 
own  fame,  and  instinctively  shrunk  from  annoying  and 
vulgar  criticism.  When  solicited  to  defend  Dr.  Web- 


430  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS   CHOATE.         [CHAP.  XL 

ster,  he  argued  with  the  friend  who  consulted  him, 
that  it  would  be  really  better  for  the  accused  to  have 
other  counsel. 

Up  to  the  year  1849,  notwithstanding  his  large 
business,  Mr.  Choate  had  been  too  careless,  both  in 
charges  and  in  collections,  to  realize  an  adequate 
return  for  his  services.  He  seemed,  indeed,  to  be 
the  only  person  who  placed  a  low  estimate  upon  the 
value  of  his  own  labors.  The  client  almost  deter- 
mined for  himself  what  he  should  pay,  and  several 
cases  actually  occurred  where  the  advocate  rated  his 
services  so  ridiculously  low  that  the  client  would  not 
be  satisfied  until  the  charges  were  doubled.  The 
amount  of  the  fee  never  affected  Mr.  Choate's  will- 
ingness to  take  a  case,  or  the  earnestness  with  which 
he  threw  himself  into  it.  It  was  the  case,  and  not 
the  reward,  which  stimulated  his  mind.1 

On  first  opening  his  office  he  kept  no  book  of  ac- 
counts. Being,  however,  at  one  time,  apparently, 
struck  with  a  sudden  fit  of  economy,  he  obtained  a 
proper  book,  and  entered,  as  the  first  item  of  an 
orderly  expenditure,  the  office  debtor  to  one  quart 
of  oil,  37^  cents.  The  next  entry  was  six  months 
later,  and  closed  the  record. 

He  was  generous  to  a  fault.  Whoever  asked  re- 
ceived. Any  one,  almost  literally  any  one,  could 
draw  from  him  five  or  ten  dollars ;  and  his  office  was 

1  Mr.  Horace  H.  Day,  in  a  letter  to  the  "  New  York  Tribune," 
dated  Feb.  11,  1875,  says  of  Mr.  Choate,  "All  who  knew  that  noble 
man  will  not  for  one  moment  give  the  least  credit  to  the  thought 
that  money  could  influence  him  in  any  question.  I  have  employed 
many  lawyers,  but  I  have  had  but  one  lawyer  who  was  wholly  un- 
selfish, and  that  was  Rufus  Choate.  His  memory  I  have  occasion  to 
cherish  with  more  satisfaction  than  that  of  any  man  I  ever  met." 


CHAP.  XL]  HIS   GENEROSITY.  431 

sometimes  quite  besieged  with  solicitors  of  charity. 
To  some  objects  he  gave  regularly.  Among  these 
was  a  very  worthy  man,  but  indigent,  and  a  con- 
firmed invalid.  "  On  one  occasion,"  says  the  gentle- 
man who  often  acted  as  the  almoner  of  his  bounty, 
"  he  requested  me  to  call  at  his  office  at  the  earliest 
opportunity.  After  making  the  usual  inquiries  about 
our  friend  and  his  sufferings,  and  expressing  his 
sympathy,  he  said  :  '  I  believe  I  have  been  neglectful 
of  his  wants  for  a  year  or  two  past.'  Then,  with  one 
of  his  nervous  shudders,  he  seized  his  pen  and  filled 
out  a  check  for  fifty  dollars  ;  and  he  would  not  make 
the  least  abatement,  though  I  assured  him  our  friend 
did  not  stand  in  any  present  need  of  such  a  munifi- 
cent donation." 

Many  came  to  borrow  of  him,  and  almost  always 
successfully,  if  he  were  not  himself  pressed  for  money. 
Of  these  he  frequently  took  neither  note  nor  obligation 
of  any  sort  in  return,  and  the  transactions  were  fre- 
quently forgotten.  When  asked  why  he  did  not  try 
to  collect  of  his  borrowers,  "  Ah,"  he  replied,  "  many 
of  them  are  cologne  bottles  without  any  stoppers." 

He  was,  indeed,  most  indifferent  to  money  ;  care- 
less of  keeping  it,  and  losing,  without  question,  thou- 
sands of  dollars  every  year  from  neglecting  to  make 
any  charge  at  all  for  his  services.  "  I  remember," 
says  a  gentleman  who  studied  with  him,  "  that  one 
morning  he  came  rushing  into  his  office  for  $500, 
remarking,  in  his  sportive  way,  '  My  kingdom  for 
$500;  have  I  got  it?'  He  went  to  his  blue  bank- 
book, looked  at  it,  and  said,  *  Not  a  dollar,  not  a 
dollar,'  and  was  going  out,  either  to  borrower  collect, 
when  I  stopped  him.  The  old  book  had  been  filled, 


432  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS  CHOATE.         [CHAP.  XL 

and  the  teller  had  given  him  a  new  one  without 
entering  in  it  the  amount  to  his  credit,  the  month  not 
being  ended  when  the  accounts  were  usually  balanced. 
I  showed  him  the  old  book,  and  there  was  a  balance 
in  his  favor  of  $1,200.  He  looked  surprised,  and  said, 
'  Thank  God.'  But  if  the  $1,200  had  disappeared, 
he  never  would  have  been  the  wiser." 

It  could  be  no  surprise,  then,  to  those  who  knew 
his  habit,  that  in  his  early  career  he  accumulated  very 
little  property.  For  the  last  ten  years  of  his  life, 
through  the  care  of  his  partner,  his  affairs  were  man- 
aged with  more  method,  and  with  growing  prosperity. 
Even  then,  however,  when  it  became  necessary  for 
Mr.  Choate  himself  to  fix  the  scale  of  his  remunera- 
tion, it  fell  about  to  the  old  standard,  until  his  junior 
learned  to  regulate  the  amount  of  their  charges  by 
those  of  the  eminent  counsel  to  whom  they  were 
generally  opposed. 

The  average  annual  receipts  of  his  office  for  the 
eleven  years  from  1849  to  1859,  inclusive,  were  nearly 
$18,000.  The  largest  receipts  were  in  1852,  when 
they  amounted  to  more  than  $20,000  ;  in  1855,  when 
they  were  nearly  $21,000 ;  and  1856,  when  they  some- 
what exceeded  $22,000.  In  only  one  year  of  the 
eleven  did  they  fall  below  $13,000.  The  largest  fee 
Mr.  Choate  ever  received  was  $2,500.  An  equal  one 
was  given,  so  far  as  is  known,  on  but  four  occasions. 
A  fee  of  from  $1,500  to  $2,000  was  more  frequent ; 
and  he  once  received  a  retaining  fee  of  $1,500.  Dur- 
ing these  eleven  years  his  engagements  in  actual 
trials,  law  arguments,  and  arguments  before  the 
legislature,  amounted  to  a  yearly  average  of  nearly 
seventy. 


CHAP.  XI.]  PREPARATION  OF  CASES.  433 

Always  free  of  his  services,  there  was  one  which, 
however  great  or  costly  to  himself,  was  always  ren- 
dered without  charge.  I  refer  to  his  exertions  in 
political  contests.  He  was  frequently  importuned  to 
receive  compensation,  as  the  labor  was  frequently 
most  wearisome  and  exhaustive.  But  as  a  matter  of 
character,  and  to  keep  himself  pure  from  the  sem- 
blance of  stain,  and  broad  and  independent  in  his  pub- 
lic course,  he  uniformly  refused.  He  prided  himself 
on  his  honor  and  purity  in  his  relations  to  the  State. 

When  approaching  the  argument  of  a  great  cause, 
or  the  delivery  of  an  important  speech,  his  mind  was 
absolutely  absorbed  with  it.  The  lights  were  left 
burning  all  night  in  his  library,  and  after  retiring  he 
would  frequently  rise  from  his  bed,  and,  without 
dressing,  rush  to  his  desk  to  note  rapidly  some 
thought  which  flashed  across  his  wakeful  mind.  This 
was  repeated  sometimes  ten  or  fifteen  times  in  a 
night.  Being  once  engaged  in  the  trial  of  an  impor- 
tant case  in  an  inland  county  of  Massachusetts,  his 
room  at  the  tavern  happened  to  open  into  that  of  the 
opposing  counsel,  who,  waking  about  two  o'clock  in 
the  morning,  was  surprised  to  see  a  bright  light 
gleaming  under  and  around  the  loosely  fitting  door. 
Supposing  that  Mr.  Choate,  who  had  retired  early, 
might  have  been  taken  suddenly  ill,  he  entered  his 
room,  and  found  him  dressed  and  standing  before 
a  small  table  which  he  had  placed  upon  chairs,  with 
four  candles  upon  it,  vigorously  writing.  Apologies 
and  explanations  at  once  followed,  Mr.  Choate  saying 
that  he  was  wakeful,  had  slept  enough,  and  the 
expected  contest  of  the  morrow  stimulated  him  to 
every  possible  preparation. 

28 


434  MEMOIR   OF   RUFUS   CHOATE.        [CHAP.  XL 

Every  important  and  difficult  cause  took  such  pos- 
session of  him  that  he  would  get  no  sound  sleep  till  it 
was  finished.  His  mind,  to  use  his  own  illustration, 
became  a  stream  that  took  up  the  cause,  like  a  ship, 
and  bore  it  on  night  and  day  till  the  verdict  or  judg- 
ment was  reached.  It  is  not  surprising,  then,  that  he 
came  from  a  trial  so  much  exhausted.  Almost  every 
considerable  case  was  attended  or  followed  with  a  se- 
vere attack  of  sick  headache.  But  his  recuperative 
power  was  as  wonderful  as  his  capacity  for  work.  A 
friend  once  asked  how  long  it  took  him  to  recover 
from  the  wear  of  a  heavy  case,  and  how  long  to  enter 
into  a  new  case  with  full  force.  He  said,  that  often 
three  or  four  hours  were  enough  to  recover  in,  and 
almost  always  a  day.  As  to  getting  into  a  case,  he 
said,  that  the  moment  his  eye  struck  a  book,  or  legal 
paper,  the  subject  lifted  him,  and  that  five  minutes 
were  sufficient  to  give  him  full  power  for  work  and 
command  of  his  faculties.  He  was  then  in  full  sail. 

Although  so  familiar  with  the  courts,  and  always 
master  of  himself,  he  was  often  filled  with  a  nervous 
agitation  when  approaching  the  argument,  sometimes 
saying  that  he  "  should  certainly  break  down  ;  every 
man  must  fail  at  some  time,  and  his  hour  had  come." 
However  deeply  absorbed  in  the  cause  before  him,  he 
seemed  tc  see  every  thing  that  was  going  on  in  the 
court-room.  As  he  was  once  addressing  a  jury,  a 
woman  in  a  distant  part  of  the  court-room  rose  and 
went  out,  with  some  rustling  of  silk.  Being  asked 
afterwards  if  he  noticed  it,  "  Noticed  it ! ''  he  said, 
"  I  thought  forty  battalions  were  moving." 

With  a  vocabulary  so  rich,  and  a  fancy  so  lively,  it 
is  not  surprising  that  he  sometimes  gave  license  to  his 


CHAP.  XI.]  HIS    WIT   AND   HUMOR.  435 

poAvers,  and  now  and  then  "  drove  a  substantive  and 
six,"  but  no  one  could  at  will  be  more  exact,  or  more 
felicitously  combine  the  utmost  precision  with  the 
most  delicious  music  of  words.  Ever  alive  to  the 
ludicrous,  he  often  dexterously  caught  up  cant 
phrases,  or  popular  terms  of  the  day,  and  eviscer- 
ating them  of  every  thing  like  vulgarity,  forced  them 
for  a  moment  into  his  service  —  all  redolent  of  the 
novel  odors  of  the  field,  the  market,  or  the  fireside, 
where  they  had  their  birth,  —  and  then  dismissed  them 
for  ever. 

"  His  wit,"  says  one  who  knew  him  well,  "  was  of 
the  most  delightful  kind,  playful  and  pungent,  and 
his  conversation  was  full  of  the  aptest  quotation, 
always,  however,  parce  detorta,  so  as  to  take  off  any 
possible  tinge  of  pedantry,  and  generally  with  a  more 
or  less  ludicrous  application.  He  was  fond  of  bring- 
ing out  the  etymology  of  words  in  his  use  of  them, 
as,  for  example,  when  speaking  of  a  disappointed 
candidate  for  an  important  nomination,  he  said,  the 
convention  "  ejaculated  him  out  at  the  window  ;"  and 
of  new  and  odd  applications  of  their  figurative  mean- 
ings, as  when  he  said  of  a  very  ugly  artist  who  had 
produced  a  too  faithful  representation  of  himself, 

"  Mr. has  painted  his  own  portrait  and  it  is  a 

flagrant  likeness." 

His  wit  and  humor  were  fresh  and  peculiar ;  seldom 
provoking  loud  laughter,  but  perpetually  feeding  the 
mind  with  delight.  He  never  prepared  nor  reserved 
his  good  things  for  a  grand  occasion,  and  to  those 
who  knew  him  best  was  as  full  of  surprises  as  to  a 
stranger.  In  the  little  office  of  a  justice  of  the  peace, 
—  in  a  retired  room  of  a  railroad  depot,  in  presence 


436  MEMOIR    OF  RUFUS   CHOATE.          [CHAP.  XL 

of  a  few  interested  members  of  the  corporation,  — 
before  two  or  three  sensible,  but  not  brilliant,  referees 
in  the  hall  of  a  country  tavern,  he  displayed  nearly 
the  same  abundance  of  learning,  the  same  exuberance 
of  language,  and  felicity  of  allusion,  the  same  play- 
fulness and  beauty,  as  when  he  spoke  before  the  most 
learned  bench,  or  the  elegant  and  cultivated  assem- 
blies of  Boston.  This  might  seem  like  a  reckless 
expenditure  of  unnecessary  wealth.  In  one  sense, 
perhaps,  it  was  so ;  yet  he  had  a  marvellous  faculty 
of  adaptation,  as  well  as  the  higher  power  of  drawing 
all  to  himself,  and  I  doubt  if  anybody  ever  listened 
to  him  with  greater  delight  and  admiration  than 
plain,  substantial  yeomen  who  might  not  be  able  to 
understand  one  in  a  hundred  of  his  allusions.  They 
understood  quite  enough  to  delight  and  convince 
them,  as  well  as  to  afford  food  for  much  laughter, 
and,  if  they  chose,  for  much  meditation. 

The  sweetness  of  his  temper  so  pervaded  and  con- 
trolled every  thing  that  he  said,  that  although  pecu- 
liarities of  character,  or  circumstances,  or  manner,  or 
appearance,  sometimes  drew  down  the  flash  of  his 
pleasantry,  as  the  unguarded  spire  the  lightning  from 
the  surcharged  cloud,  it  was  a  harmless  bolt,  unless 
(which  was  very  rarely  the  case),  he  was  provoked 
by  injustice  or  harshness  to  give  proof  of  his  power. 
Sayings  of  his,  innumerable,  have  been  current  among 
the  members  of  the  bar,  but  I  never  heard  of  a  man 
who  felt  aggrieved  by  any  of  them.  His  regard  for 
Chief  Justice  Shaw  amounted  to  veneration.  "  With 
what  judge,"  he  once,  in  substance,  said,  "  can  you 
see  your  antagonist  freely  conversing,  without  the 
slightest  apprehension,  as  you  can  with  him  ?  "  Look- 


CHAP.  XL]  HIS   WIT  AND   HUMOR.  437 

ing  once  at  an  engraving  of  Sir  Matthew  Hale,  "  A 
very  great  judge,"  he  said,  "but  not  greater,  I  think, 
than  the  Chief,"  as  Judge  Shaw  was  familiarly  called. 
An  eminent  lawyer,  engaged  with  him  in  a  case,  was 
once  rising  to  contest  what  seemed  an  unfavorable,  if 
not  an  unfair,  ruling.  Mr.  Choate  drew  him  back  and 
whispered  in  his  ear,  "  Let  it  go.  Sit  down.  Life, 
liberty,  and  property  are  always  safe  in  his  hands." 1 
One  anecdote  has  been  often  told  incorrectly,  and  so 
as  to  convey  a  wrong  impression,  which  I  am  able  to 
give  in  the  words  of  an  eminent  lawyer,  who  was  him- 
self an  actor  in  the  scene.  "  It  was  in  the  East  Cam- 
bridge court-house,  at  the  law  term.  The  full  Bench 
were  present ;  a  tedious  argument  had  been  dragging 
its  weary  length  along  for  an  hour  or  two  ;  the  session 
had  lasted  several  hours,  and  the  Chief  Justice  had 
yielded  for  a  moment  to  drowsiness,  —  being  no  more 
than  mortal.  Mr.  Choate  and  I  were  sitting  in  the 
bar,  being  concerned  in  the  next  case.  As  I  looked 
up  at  the  Bench,  the  large  head  of  the  Chief  Justice 
presented  itself  settled  down  upon  his  breast  about  as 
far  as  it  could  go,  his  eyes  closed,  his  hair  shaggy  and 
disordered,  having  on  a  pair  of  large  black  spectacles 

1  "  The  Chief-Justice,"  says  the  Hon.  Emory  "Washburn,  "  had  a 
way  of  expressing  disapproval  of  what  seemed  to  him  a  fallacy  in 
an  argument,  or  a  questionable  mode  of  proceeding  in  a  cause,  which 
sounded  very  like  reproof,  and  often  gave  pain  to  the  subject  of  it 
from  the  manner  in  which  it  was  done.  Nor  did  Mr.  Choate  escape. 
On  one  occasion,  after  listening  with  respect  to  one  of  those  rebukes, 
as  he  did  to  every  thing  that  fell  from  the  court,  Mr.  Choate  turned 
to  two  or  three  of  his  brethren,  who  had  heard  it,  and  quietly 
remarked,  with  that  expression  upon  his  countenance  which  always 
told  the  mood  he  was  in,  that  '  he  did  not  suppose  that  any  one  ever 
thought  the  Chief-Justice  was  much  of  a  lawyer,  but  that  nobody 
could  deny  that  he  was  a  man  of  pleasant  manners.' " 


438  MEMOIR   OF   RUFUS    CHOATE.          [CHAP.  XL 

which  had  slid  down  to  the  very  tip  of  his  nose,  and 
his  face  seeming  to  have  discharged,  for  the  time, 
every  trace  of  intelligence, 


I  looked,  and  then  looked  at  Mr.  Choate,  whose  eyes 
had  followed  mine,  and  then  said  to  him,  '  that  not- 
withstanding the  curious  spectacle  he  sometimes  fur- 
nished us,  I  could  never  look  at  the  Chief  Justice 
without  reverence.'  '  Nor  can  I,'  he  replied.  '  When 
you  consider  for  how  many  years,  and  with  what 
strength  and  wisdom  he  has  administered  the  law,  — 
how  steady  he  has  kept  every  thing,  —  how  much  we 
owe  to  his  weight  of  character,  —  I  confess  I  regard 
him  as  the  Indian  does  his  wooden  log,  curiously 
carved  ;  I  acknowledge  he's  ugly,  but  I  bow  before  a 
superior  intelligence  !  '  You  can  imagine  the  twinkle 
of  the  eye,  and  the  parenthetical  tone  with  which  the 
'  I  acknowledge  he's  ugly'  came  in.  I  hope  you  will 
be  able  to  get  together  many  of  Mr.  Choate's  felici- 
ties ;  they  must  abound  in  all  memories."2 

As  an  instance  of  his  pleasant  way  of  announcing 
what  might  seem  to  be  an  ordinary  fact,  a  member  of 
the  Massachusetts  bar3  writes:  "While  a  student  in 

1  Iliad  III.  220. 

2  The  following  is  from  a  letter  of  the  Hon.  Matt.  H.  Carpenter  to 
Judge  Neilson.     "  Stevenson,  the  sculptor,"  he  says,  "  told  me  that 
he  was  once  engaged  in   carving  a  lion  of  exaggerated  size;  that 
while  he  was  engaged  on  the  head  and  mane,  Mr.  Choate  took  the 
liveliest  interest  in  the  work,  calling  every  morning  as  he  came  down, 
and  every  evening  on  his  way  home,  to  mark  its  progress.     Steven- 
son, being  curious,  asked  Mr.  Choate  why  that  work  interested  him 
so  much.    '  Why,'  said  Mr.  Choate,  '  that  is  the  best  likeness  of  Chief 
Justice  Shaw  that  I  ever  saw.'  " 

8  Charles  P.  Thompson,  Esq.,  of  Gloucester. 


CHAP.  XL]  HIS  WIT  AND  HUMOR.  439 

the  office  of  the  late  Benjamin  F.  Hallett,  of  Boston, 
I  went  into  the  Law  Library  to  deliver  some  message 
to  him.  I  found  him  engaged  in  preparing  his  points 
in  a  cause  that  was  then  about  to  be  heard  at  a  law 
term  of  the  Supreme  Court.  Mr.  Choate  was  in  the 
case  then  being  heard^  Mr.  Hallett's  being  the  next 
in  order.  When  Mr.  Choate's  cause  was  finished,  he 
notified  Mr.  Hallett  —  just  putting  his  head  inside  the 
door  —  in  these  words  :  '  Mr.  Hallett,  there  is  nothing 
now  between  you  and  that  justice  which  you  seek.' 
The  manner  in  which  this  was  said  was  so  happy,  his 
voice  so  musical,  that  it  made  an  impression  upon  my 
mind  I  shall  never  forget." 

His  pleasantry  was  exuberant  and  unfailing,  in 
defeat  as  well  as  in  victory.  It  was  a  safeguard 
against  depression  and  discouragement.  Under  defeat 
especially,  by  some  ludicrous  absurdity,  some  witty 
exaggeration,  some  jocose  extravagance,  some  half- 
earnest,  half-sportive  criticism  of  judge  or  jury,  — 
never  for  a  moment  misunderstood  by  those  who 
knew  him  —  he  lightened  the  disappointment  of 
others  as  well  as  himself.  Receiving,  one  morning, 
a  note  from  a  gentleman  engaged  with  him  in  a  cause 
at  Washington,  informing  him  that  the  Court  had 
decided  against  them,  he  at  once  wrote  back :  — 

"  DEAR  SIR,  —  The  Court  has  lost  its  little  wits.  Please 
let  me  have — 1.  Our  brief  (for  the  law).  2.  The  defend- 
ant's brief  (for  the  sophistry).  3.  The  opinion  (for  the 
foolishness),  and  never  say  die.  R.  C." 

Coming  to  his  office  once  after  the  Supreme  Court 
of  the  State  had  decided  an  important  cause  against 
him,  he  threw  his  books  and  papers  on  the  desk,  and 
after  announcing  the  decision  to  those  present,  went 


440  MEMOIR   OF  RUFUS  CHOATE.          [CHAP.  XL 

on  to  say :  "  Every  judge  on  that  bench  seems  to  be 
more  stupid  than  every  other  one,  and  if  I  were  not 
afraid  of  losing  the  good  opinion  of  the  court,  I  would 
impeach  the  whole  batch  of  them"  1 

In  1847,  Mr.  Choate  argued  a  cause  before  the 
United  States  Circuit  Court  t  in  Boston,  which  in- 
volved, to  a  certain  extent,  the  question  of  State- 
rights,  so  called,  then  prominent  in  the  politics  of  the 
country.  Mr.  Choate's  client  based  his  claim  upon 
some  United  States  law  or  process ;  his  opponent 
claiming  under  State  authority.  The  eminent  judge, 
presiding  over  the  court,  was  supposed  to  be  a  prob- 
able Democratic  candidate  for  the  presidency,  a  prom- 
inent competitor  being  the  Hon.  Silas  Wright  of  New 
York.  The  case  was  elaborately  argued  on  both 
sides,  and  held  by  the  court  for  consideration.  In 
the  mean  time  the  news  reached  Boston  of  the  sudden 
death  of  Mr.  Wright.  Soon  after,  the  Court  inti- 
mated that  an  opinion  would  be  given  on  the  ques- 
tion before  it,  which  the  counsel  on  both  sides  were 
of  course  anxious  to  hear.  It  so  happened,  however, 
that  the  junior  associate  of  Mr.  Choate,  —  Mr.  D.,  — 
being  accidentally  detained,  did  not  reach  the  court 
room  in  season,  but  met  Mr.  Choate  coming  down  the 
stairs  and  looking  very  lugubrious.  He  at  once  con- 
jectured trouble,  and  asked  what  was  the  decision. 
"  Against  us,"  said  Mr.  Choate,  in  sepulchral  tones. 
"  Dead  against  us :  mainly  on  the  ground  of  Silas 
Wright's  death!" 

He  was  rather  fond  of  talking  of  his  contempora- 
ries, but  rarely  spoke  of  any  of  them  otherwise  than 
kindly  and  favorably,  —  lingering  upon  their  merits, 

1  Hon.  Matt.  H.  Carpenter.    "  Albany  Law  Journal,"  March,  1877. 


CHAP.  XI.]  ANECDOTES.  441 

and  passing  over  their  failings.  Occasionally,  after 
speaking  of  others,  he  would  refer  to  himself  in  the 
same  connection.  Conversing  one  day  with  a  young 
friend  about  Mr.  Franklin  Dexter,  then  just  deceased, 
he  eulogized  him  as  a  most  able,  faithful,  and  con- 
scientious prosecuting  officer,  who  never  pressed  an 
indictment  for  the  sake  of  victory,  nor  unless  he 
believed  that  a  verdict  against  the  accused  would  ful- 
fil the  highest  ends  of  justice.  He  then  proceeded  to 
speak  in  general  terms  of  the  responsibility  of  a  pub- 
lic prosecutor,  and  of  his  own  deep  sense  of  this 
responsibility  while  Attorney-General.  He  was  sol- 
emn and  earnest,  and  left  a  profound  impression  that 
never  while  holding  that  office  was  he  entirely  free 
from  anxiety  that  nothing  should  be  done  by  him,  or 
through  his  means,  by  which  a  possibly  innocent  pris- 
oner should  lose  his  legal  chances  of  acquittal. 

When  talking  with  a  client,  respecting  a  defence, 
his  rule  was,  never  to  ask  him  whether  he  did  the  act; 
yet  he  was  very  watchful  for  signs  of  innocence  or 
guilt.  After  an  interview  with  a  person  who  con- 
sulted him  as  to  a  disgraceful  imputation  under 
which  he  was  laboring,  he  remarked,  "  He  did  it,  he 
sweats  so." 

Although  one  could  hardly  converse  with  Mr. 
Choate  for  five  minutes  without  hearing  some  remark 
striking  for  its  beauty,  or  novelty,  or  humor,  yet  few 
of  these  sayings  have  been  recorded,  and  in  most 
cases,  where  the  thought  has  remained,  the  rare  felic- 
ity of  language  which  graced  it  has  escaped  the  mem- 
ory, and  the  strange,  indescribable  fascination  of 
manner  with  which  it  was  accompanied  no  one  can 
reproduce.  Any  one  who  has  a  fresh  recollection  of 


442  MEMOIR   OF  RUFUS   CHOATE.          [CHAP.  XI. 

the  impression  produced  at  the  time  by  some  sudden 
flash  of  his  mind,  will  be  the  more  reluctant  to  repeat 
what  invariably  loses  in  the  process.  I  have  been 
able  to  gather  up  but  a  few  of  these  unpremeditated 
sayings.  Those  who  knew  Mr.  Choate  must  supply 
for  themselves  the  tone  and  manner. 

The  qualifications  of  a  certain  office-holder  being 
discussed  in  his  presence,  Mr.  Choate  said,  "  Yes,  Sir, 
you  may  sum  them  up  by  asserting  that  he  is  self- 
sufficient,  all-sufficient,  and  insufficient." 

A  copy  of  the  "  Poetry  of  the  East,"  by  Rev.  Mr. 
Alger,  had  been  sent  to  him.  Meeting  the  author  at 
a  party  soon  after,  he  remarked  to  him,  "  I  examined 
your  '  Poetry  of  the  East '  with  a  great  deal  of  in- 
terest. The  Orientals  seem  to  be  amply  competent 
to  metaphysics,  wonderfully  competent  to  poetry, 
scarcely  competent  to  virtue,  utterly  incompetent  to 
liberty." 

For  the  following  I  am  indebted  to  the  kindness  of 
Mr.  Ticknor :  "  Mr.  Choate  was  of  counsel  in  the 
case  of  the  Federal-Street  Church,  and  I  was  sum- 
moned as  a  witness.  Sitting  with  him  in  the  bar, 
after  I  had  been  examined,  my  eye  fell  accidentally 
on  his  notes,  which,  you  are  aware,  were  somewhat 
remarkable,  so  far  as  the  handwriting  was  concerned. 
It  struck  me,  however,  while  I  was  looking  at  them, 
that  they  much  resembled  two  rather  long  autograph 
letters  which  I  preserve  in  my  small  collection  of  such 
curiosities  ;  one  by  Manuel  the  Great  of  Portugal, 
dated  in  1512,  and  the  other  by  Gonzalvo  de  Cordova, 
'the  Great  Captain,'  written,  I  suppose,  a  little  earlier, 
but  with  no  date  that  I  can  make  out.  I  could  not 
help  telling  Mr.  Choate  that  I  possessed  these  speci- 


CHAP.  XL]  ANECDOTES.  443 

mens  of  the  handwriting  of  two  such  remarkable  men, 
who  lived  three  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago,  and  that 
they  strongly  resembled  his  notes,  as  they  lay  on  the 
table  before  us.  '  Remarkable  men,  no  doubt,'  he 
replied  instantly ;  '  they  seem  to  have  been  much  in 
advance  of  their  time  ! ' 

This,  said  with  his  peculiar  suavity  and  droll  ex- 
pression, the  singularity  of  the  comparison  and  the 
grounds  of  praise,  was  like  a  little  flash  of  sunlight 
through  a  cloud. 

Taking  an  early  morning  walk  he  met  Mr.  Prescott, 
whose  "  Philip  II."  had  been  for  some  time  impa- 
tiently expected.  "  You  are  out  early,"  said  the  his- 
torian. "  I  wish,"  he  replied,  "  I  could  say  the  same 
of  you,  who  are  keeping  the  whole  world  waiting." 

.A  celebrated  lecturer  meeting  him,  said  that  he  was 
thinking  of  writing  a  lecture  on  one  of  the  ancient 
generals.  "  That  is  it,"  said  Mr.  Choate  ;  "  Hannibal 
is  your  man.  Think  of  him  crossing  the  Alps  in  win- 
ter, with  nobody  at  his  back  but  a  parcel  of  Numidians, 
Moors,  Niggers,  riding  on  horses  without  any  bridles, 
to  set  himself  against  that  imperial  Roman  power  !  " 

Attending  the  opera  on  one  occasion,  and  being 
but  indifferently  amused  by  the  acting  and  music, 
which  he  did  not  understand,  he  turned  to  his  daughter 
and  said,  with  grave  formality :  "  Helen,  interpret 
to  me  this  libretto,  lest  I  dilate  with  the  wrong 
emotion !  " 

"  He  objected  once  to  an  illiterate  constable's 
return  of  service,  bristling  all  over  with  the  word 
having,  on  the  ground  that  it  was  bad.  The  judge 
remarked  that,  though  inelegant  and  ungrammatical 
in  its  structure,  the  paper  still  seemed  to  be  good  in 


444  MEMOIR   OF   RUFUS  CHOATE.         [CHAP.  XI. 

a  legal  sense.  '  It  may  be  so,  your  Honor,'  replied 
Mr.  Choate,  '  but,  it  must  be  confessed,  he  has 
greatly  overworked  the  participle.'  "  : 

In  replying  to  a  lawyer  who  had  been  addressing 
the  Court  in  a  loud  and  almost  boisterous,  manner,  Mr. 
Choate  referred  playfully  to  his  "  stentorian  powers." 
To  his  surprise,  however,  the  counsel  took  it  in  dud- 
geon, and  as  soon  as  possible  rose  to  protest  against 
the  hostile  assault.  "  He  had  not  been  aware  of  any 
thing  in  his  mode  of  address  which  would  justify 
such  an  epithet;  he  thought  it  unusual  and  unde- 
served," &c.,  &c.  Going  on  thus,  his  voice  uncon- 

1  Essays  by  E.  P.  Whipple,  vol.  ii.  p.  167. 

Of  his  "  dainty  and  humorous  use  of  words,"  with  meaning  a  little 
bent  to  suit  his  purpose,  or  involving  some  laughable  absurdity, 
examples  are  numerous. 

Of  a  reputation  damaged  in  the  courts,  it  was,  he  said,  "  to  make 
the  best  of  it,  sadly  tenebrious." 

Of  an  advocate,  very  erect  and  very  overbearing,  he  spoke  as 
stating  his  position  with  "  a  more  than  ordinary  perpendicularity  of 
assertion." 

"  When  I  had  been  two  days  on  the  Rhine,"  he  said  to  Rev.  Dr. 
Storrs,  "  I  knew  the  whole  river  perfectly :  couldn't  have  known  it 
better  if  I  had  been  drowned  in  it." 

On  one  occasion,  when  opposed  to  Mr.  Webster  in  a  case  before 
the  court,  "  Mr.  Choate  had  lucidly  and  with  great  emphasis,  stated 
the  law.  Mr.  Webster  —  than  whom  a  greater  master  of  attitude, 
gesture,  and  facial  expression,  never  lived  —  turned  on  him  the  gaze 
of  his  great  eye,  as  if  in  mournful,  despairing  remonstrance  against 
such  a  sad  and  strange  perversion.  '  That  is  the  law,  may  it  please 
your  Honor,'  thundered  Mr.  Choate,  catching  the  glance,  advancing 
a  step,  and  looking  full  in  Webster's  face  — '  That  is  the  law,  in  spite 
of  the  admonishing,  the  somewhat  paternal  look,  in  the  eye  of  my 
illustrious  friend.'  And  it  was  the  law,  as  affirmed  by  the  court."  — 
Rev.  Dr.  R.  S.  STORKS,  in  "  Albany  Law  Journal." 

In  a  criminal  case,  a  friend  said  to  him,  "  Why,  Mr.  Choate,  I  hear 
that  your  client  has  confessed.  Is  that  so  ?  "  "  Yes,"  said  Choate, 
"  he's  'fessed.  He  'fessed  he  didn't  do  it." 


CHAP.  XL]  ANECDOTES.  445 

sciously  soon  rose  again  to  its  highest  key,  and  rung 
through  the  court-house  as  if  he  were  haranguing  an 
army;  when  Mr.  Choate  half  rose,  and  stretching 
out  his  hand  with  a  deprecatory  gesture,  said,  in  the 
blandest  tones,  "  One  word,  may  it  please  the  Court ; 
only  one  word,  if  my  brother  will  allow.  /  see  my 
mistake.  I  beg  leave  to  retract  what  I  said  !"  The 
effect  was  irresistible.  The  counsel  was  silent;  the 
Court  and  spectators  convulsed  with  laughter. 

Of  a  lawyer  at  once  pugnacious,  obstinate,  and 
dull-witted,  he  remarked  that  he  seemed  to  be  a  bull- 
dog with  confused  ideas.  The  description  was 
comprehensive  and  perfect. 

During  the  trial  of  Crafts,  Mr.  Choate  was  pressing 
the  Court  to  make  what  he  thought  a  very  equitable 
and  necessary  order  in  relation  to  taking  a  certain 
deposition.  The  Court,  finding  no  precedent  for  it, 
suggested  that  the  matter  be  suspended  till  the  next 
day,  "  and  then,"  added  the  judge,  "  I  will  make  the 
order,  if  you  shall  be  able  to  furnish  me  with  any 
precedent  for  such  proceeding."  "•  I  will  look,  your 
Honor,"  replied  Mr.  Choate,  in  his  most  deferential 
manner,  "  and  endeavor  to  find  a  precedent,  if  you 
require  it ;  though  it  would  seem  to  be  a  pity  that 
the  Court  should  lose  the  honor  of  being  the  first  to 
establish  so  just  a  rule." 

"  I  met  him  once,"  said  a  member  of  the  New 
York  bar,1  "at  the  United  States  Hotel,  in  Boston, 
when  he  was  boarding  there.  As  we  were  walking 
up  and  down  the  hall  of  the  house  after  dinner,  I 
happened  to  see  hanging  on  the  wall  a  map  of  a  piece 
of  property  in  Quincy,  and  remarked  that  that  re- 

1  From  the  memorandum  of  Hon.  Charles  A.  Peabody. 


446  MEMOIR   OF   RTJFUS    CHOATE.  [CHAP.  XI. 

minded  me  of  one  whom  I  must  regard  as  the  most 
remarkable  man  of  our  day  (John  Quincy  Adams). 
He  said,  '  Yes,  I  think  he  is.  We  have  no  man  as 
much  so,  and  I  think  they  have  none  in  England. 
The  Duke  I  think  is  less  wonderful,  all  things  con- 
sidered.' I  spoke  of  his  remarkable  memory,  his 
vast  knowledge,  and  his  marvellous  facility  in  using 
it,  and  alluded  to  his  recent  efforts  in  the  House  of 
Representatives  at  Washington,  where  something  had 
been  said  about  impeaching  him,  and  remarked,  that 
without  waiting  to  assume  the  defensive,  or  s&y  any 
thing  for  himself,  he  had  rushed  upon  his  accusers 
and  well-nigh  demolished  them,  bringing  from  the 
treasures  of  his  memory  every  incident  of  their  lives 
that  could  be  useful  to  him,  and  drawing  as  from  an 
armory  every  variety  of  weapons  practicable  for  their 
destruction.  '  Yes,'  he  replied,  '  he  has  always  untold 
treasures  of  facts,  and  they  are  always  at  his  command. 
He  has  peculiar  powers  as  an  assailant,  and  almost 
always,  even  when  attacked,,  gets  himself  into  that 
attitude  by  making  war  upon  his  accuser  ;  and  he 
has,  withal,  an  instinct  for  the  jugular  and  the  carotid 
artery,  as  unerring  as  that  of  any  carnivorous  ani- 


On  one  occasion  Mr.  Choate  was  engaged  in  a 
patent  case  where  a  great  number  of  witnesses  had 
been  examined  by  his  opponent,  and  he  was  at  the 
same  time  a  delegate  to  the  Whig  convention,  which 
was  to  choose  between  several  candidates  for  the 
Presidency,  of  whom  Mr.  Webster  was  one.  In 
closing  the  case,  when  he  came  to  comment  on  the 
witnesses  of  the  opposite  party,  he  said,  "  The  defend- 
ant has  such  an  array  of  witnesses  on  this  point, 


CHAP.  XI]  HIS   ELOQUENCE.  447 

that  I  hardly  know  where  to  begin  with  them  ;  but 
if  your  Honor  pleases,  I  think  I  will  take  them  up, 
as  we  shall  have  to  do  by  and  by  in  canvassing  for 
candidates  for  the  Presidency,  alphabetically  ;  and 
hence  I  will  do  here  as  I  should  wish  to  do  there, 
reverse  the  alphabet  and  begin  with  the  W.'s."  The 
allusion  was  instantly  appreciated  by  Court,  jury, 
and  audience ;  and  as  most  of  them  were  Massachu- 
setts men,  and  friends  of  Mr.  Webster,  it  came  near 
provoking  a  very  audible  demonstration. 

Mr.  Choate's  eloquence  was  of  an  extraordinary 
nature,  which  one  who  never  heard  him  can  hardly 
understand.  It  was  complex,  like  his  mind  ;  at  once 
broad  and  subtle  ;  easily  understood  but  impossible 
to  describe  ;  compact  with  all  the  elements  of  beauty 
and  of  power  ;  a  spell  composed  of  all  things  rich  and 
strange,  to  fascinate,  persuade,  and  convince.  It  was 
not  by  accident  that  he  reached  such  success  as  an 
advocate,  but  through  profound  study  and  severe 
training.  Not  to  speak  of  that  which  lies  at  the  basis 
of  all  permanent  success  at  the  bar,  a  thorough  knowl- 
edge of  the  law  as  a  science,  as  well  as  in  its  forms, 
he  was  remarkable  for  sound  judgment  in  the  prep- 
aration and  management  of  a  cause.  He  knew 
instinctively  what  to  affirm  and  what  to  yield.  He 
chose  the  point  of  attack  or  defence  with  consummate 
skill  ;  and  if  he  did  not  succeed,  it  was  because 
success  was  not  possible.  His  mind  moved  like  a 
flash,  and  an  unguarded  point,  a  flaw  in  an  argument, 
an  unwise  theory  of  procedure,  a  charge  somewhat 
too  strong  or  a  little  beside  the  real  purpose,  were 
seized  upon  with  almost  absolute  certainty  and  turned 
with  damaging  effect  against  his  opponents.  In  the 


448  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS   CHOATE.         [CHAP.  XI. 

preparation  of  a  case  he  left  nothing  to  accident 
which  he  could  fix  by  care  and  labor.  In  determining 
a  theory  of  defence,  he  was  endless  in  suggestions 
and  hypotheses  till  the  one  was  chosen  which  seemed 
impregnable,  or  at  any  rate  the  best  that  could  be 
found.  In  consultation  he  generally  looked  first  at 
his  opponent's  side,  then  at  his  own  ;  stating  in  full 
force  every  unfavorable  argument,  and  then  endeav- 
oring to  answer  them,  thus  playing  the  whole  through 
like  a  game  of  chess.  In  these  cases  his  attention 
was  given  not  only  to  a  general  proposition  but  to 
all  its  details.  A  person  once  prosecuted  the  city  to 
recover  damages  for  injuries  received  by  a  fall  in  con- 
sequence of  a  defect  in  a  bridge.  At  the  first  meeting 
for  consultation  with  the  junior  counsel  he  spent  an 
hour  in  determining  exactly  how  one  could  so  catch 
his  foot  in  a  hole  as  to  be  thrown  in  the  way  to  pro- 
duce the  specific  injury,  till  by  means  of  the  fender 
and  coal-hod,  with  the  tongs  and  shovel,  he  con- 
structed a  rude  model  of  the  dilapidated  bridge,  and 
satisfied  himself-  of  the  precise  manner  in  which  the 
accident  happened.  No  man  was  ever  more  courageous 
than  he  for  his  client.  Sometimes  he  seemed  to  run 
prodigious  risks ;  but  he  knew  his  ground,  and  when 
once  taken,  nothing  would  beat  him  from  it.  His 
plea  of  somnambulism  in  Tirrell's  case  subjected  him 
to  a  thousand  innuendoes,  to  the  bantering  of  the 
newspapers  and  the  ridicule  of  the  vulgar.  The  jury 
themselves  said  that  in  coming  to  their  verdict,  they 
did  not  consider  it.  But  in  the  second  trial  he 
brought  it  forward  with  just  as  much  assurance  as 
ever. 

His  knowledge  of  human  nature  was  intuitive.    At 


CHAP.  XI.]  HIS   ELOQUENCE.  449 

a  glance  he  formed  a  judgment  of  the  jurymen,  and 
governed  himself  accordingly,  sometimes  addressing 
each  individual  according  to  his  perception  of  their 
several  characteristics,  repeating  and  varying  his  argu- 
ments till  every  mind  was  reached.  However  forcible 
or  strong,  he  never  was  harsh  or  coarse.  In  no  orator 
were  the  elements  of  conviction  and  persuasion  so 
beautifully  blended.  His  conviction  was  persuasive  ; 
his  persuasion,  convincing.  More  truly  than  was  said 
of  Fox,  "  his  intellect  was  all  feeling,  and  his  feeling 
all  intellect."  No  juryman  was  ever  weary  with  his 
argument.  The  driest  matter  of  fact  was  enlivened 
by  some  unexpected  turn  of  humor,  or  unthought-of 
illustration.  His  logic  never  assumed  technical  forms, 
but  was  enveloped  and  carried  onward  in  narrative 
and  illustration. 

In  his  arguments  to  a  jury,  his  openings  were  nat- 
ural, easy,  and  informal.  He  glided  into  a  subject  so 
gently  that  you  hardly  knew  it.  He,  oftener  than 
otherwise,  began  with  a  general  statement  of  the 
whole  case,  making  a  clear  and  definite  outline, 
which  no  one  could  fail  to  understand  and  remember. 
He  then  proceeded  to  a  careful  and  protracted  analy- 
sis of  the  evidence ;  his  theory  of  the  case,  in  the 
mean  time,  had  been  pretty  broadly  broached,  and  his 
propositions,  perhaps,  laid  down,  and  repeated  with 
every  variety  of  statement  which  seemed  necessary 
for  his  purpose.  Often  his  theory  was  insinuated 
rather  than  stated,  and  the  jury  were  led  insensibly 
to  form  it  for  themselves.  His  skill  in  narrative  was 
equal  to  his  cogency  in  argument.  He  had  a  wonder- 
ful power  of  vivid  portraiture,  —  of  compressing  an 
argument  into  a  word,  or  phrase,  or  illustration. 

29 


450  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS   CHOATE.          [CHAP.  XI. 

No  one  could  make  a  more  clear,  convincing,  and 
effective  statement ;  none  held  all  the  resources  of  the 
language  more  absolutely  at  command.  His  power 
over  the  sympathies,  by  which,  from  the  first  word  he 
uttered,  you  were  drawn  to  him  with  a  strange  and 
inexplicable  attraction,  was  wonderful.  Court,  jury, 
and  spectators  seemed  fused  into  one  mass  of  willing 
and  delighted  listeners.  They  could  not  help  being 
influenced  by  him.  Calming  the  hostility  of  his  hear- 
ers by  kindness,  conciliating  their  prejudices,  convert- 
ing them  into  friends,  bending  their  will  to  his  in 
delightful  harmony,  he  moved  on  with  irresistible 
force,  boiling  along  his  course,  tumultuous  but  beauti- 
ful, lifting  them  bodily,  bearing  all  with  him,  and 
prostrating  all  before  him.  His  pleasantry  and  wit, 
his  grotesque  exaggerations,  never  gross  or  vulgar, 
served  to  wake  up  a  sleepy  juryman,  or  relieve  a  dry 
detail.  They  lubricated  the  wheels  of  a  long  train  of 
discussion.  He  often  put  himself  so  far  as  he  could, 
really,  or  jocosely  yet  half  in  earnest,  into  sympathy 
with  his  opponents  themselves.  In  the  Dalton  case  he 
professed  at  the  outset  that  he  spoke  in  the  interest  of 
both  parties.  In  the  case  of  Shawu.  The  Boston  and 
Worcester  Railroad,  which  was  contested  with  a  good 
deal  of  feeling,  coming  to  the  close  of  his  argument 
he  said,  turning  round  and  facing  the  President  of  the 
road,  "  My  friends,  the  President  and  Directors  of  the 
Boston  and  Worcester  Railroad,  honorable  and  high- 
minded  men  as  I  know  them  to  be,  have  probably  con- 
sidered that  they  should  not  be  justified  in  paying  to 
the  plaintiff  the  large  sum  of  money  claimed  in  this 
case  without  the  protection  of  a  judgment  in  a  suit  at 
law  ;  but  I  have  no  doubt,  gentlemen,  if  you  establish 


CHAP.  XL]  HIS   SELF-POSSESSION.  451 

the  liability,  every  one  of  them  would  lay  his  hand  on 
his  heart  and  say,  '  Give  her  all  that  she  asks,  and 
God  bless  her  ! '  " 

Mr.  Choate  never  lost  self-possession.  He  seemed 
to  have  the  surest  mastery  of  himself  in  the  moment 
of  greatest  excitement.  He  was  never  beside  himself 
with  passion  or  anxiety,  and  seldom  disconcerted  by 
any  accident  or  unexpected  posture  of  affairs,  —  so 
very  seldom  indeed,  that  the  one  or  two  cases  where 
he  was  slightly  so,  are  pretty  distinctly  remembered. 
One  instance  occurred  in  the  trial  of  a  question  of 
salvage.  It  was  the  case  of  The  Missouri,  an  Ameri- 
can vessel  stranded  on  the  coast  of  Sumatra,  with 
specie  on  board.  The  master  of  the  stranded  vessel, 
one  Dixey,  and  Pitman,  the  master  of  the  vessel  that 
came  to  her  aid,  agreed  together  to  embezzle  the  greater 
part  of  the  specie,  and  pretend  that  they  had  been 
robbed  of  it  by  the  Malays.  Mr.  Choate  was  cross- 
examining  Dixey  very  closely  to  get  out  of  him  the 
exact  time  and  nature  of  the  agreement.  The  witness 
said  that  Pitman  proposed  the  scheme,  and  that  he 
objected  to  it,  among  other  reasons,  as  dangerous. 
To  which,  he  said,  Pitman  made  a  suggestion  in- 
tended to  satisfy  him.  Mr.  Choate  insisted  on  know- 
ing what  that  suggestion  was.  The  witness  was  loath 
to  give  it.  Mr.  Choate  was  peremptory,  and  the 
scene  became  interesting.  "  Well,"  said  Dixey  at 
last,  "if  you  must  know,  he  said  that  if  any  trouble 
came  of  it  we  could  have  Rufus  Choate  to  defend  us, 
and  he  would  get  us  off  if  we  were  caught  with  the 
money  in  our  boots."  It  was  several  minutes  before 
the  Court  could  go  on  with  the  business.  For  a  few 
moments  Mr.  Choate  seemed  uncertain  how  to  take 


452  MEMOIR   OF  KUFUS   CHOATE.          [CHAP.  XI. 

it.  He  did  not  relish  the  nature  of  the  compliment, 
and  yet  it  was  a  striking  tribute  to  his  fame  that  two 
men,  at  the  antipodes,  should  concoct  a  great  fraud 
relying  upon  his  genius  to  save  them ;  and  so  the 
opposing  counsel,  Mr.  Dana,  put  it,  in  his  argument, 
aptly  quoting  the  Quce  regio  in  terris. 

His  wit,  his  ludicrous  representations,  his  sublime 
exaggerations,  were  never  without  a  purpose.  They 
were  not  the  result  of  a  taste  which  delighted  in  such 
things  as  beauties  or  felicities,  but  of  a  desire  to  attract 
the  wandering  attention,  to  fasten  a  thought  by  a  lu- 
dicrous picture,  to  relieve  the  mind  of  the  weary  jury, 
or  to  show  by  an  illustration  the  absurdity  of  the  propo- 
sition he  was  combating. 

In  an  argument  before  a  committee  of  the  Legisla- 
ture in  1860,  in  behalf  of  the  Detitioners  for  a  railroad 
from  Salem  to  Maiden,  he  drew  one  of  those  pictures 
with  which  he  was  accustomed  to  amuse,  but,  also, 
much  more  than  merely  to  amuse,  a  jury.  One  argu- 
ment in  favor  of  the  new  road  was,  that  it  would  en- 
able travellers  to  avoid  the  East  Boston  Ferry,  and 
to  gain  in  speed.  In  reply,  the  beauties  of  the  pros- 
pect in  the  harbor,  and  the  pleasure  of  meeting  friends 
on  the  boat,  were  referred  to,  as  an  offset. 

"  The  learned  though  somewhat  fanciful  gentle- 
man," said  Mr.  Choate,  "  has  eloquently  set  forth  the 
delight  which  must  be  felt  by  all  in  catching  an 
occasional  glimpse  of  the  harbor,  as  they  cross  in  the 
boat ;  as  if  the  business  people  of  Danvers,  Lynn,  or 
Saugus,  would  care  to  stop,  or  think  of  stopping,  to 
gaze  upon  the  threadbare  and  monotonous  beauties 
of  Boston  Harbor  when  hurrying  to  transact  their 
affairs.  Unfortunately,  too,  for  the  gentleman's  case, 


H*    > § 

<         C  *      (    t 


CHAP.  XL]        HIS  POWER  OVER  AN  AUDIENCE.  453 

in  this  respect,  it  so  happens  that  these  same  people 
have  compelled  this  company  to  arch  their  boat  all 
over,  and  wall  it  up  all  round,  so  that  nothing  at  all 
can  be  seen.  Then  the  delight  of  meeting  and  shak- 
ing hands  with  an  old  friend !  Conceive,  gentlemen,  the 
pastoral,  touching,  pathetic  picture  of  two  Salem  gentle- 
men, who  have  been  in  the  habit  of  seeing  each  other  a 
dozen  times  a  day  for  the  last  twenty-five  years,  almost 
rushing  into  each  other's  arms  on  board  the  ferry-boat ; 
—  WHAT  TRANSPORT!  We  can  only  regret  that 
such  felicity  should  be  so  soon  broken  up  by  the 
necessity  of  running  a  race  against  time,  or  fighting 
with  each  other  for  a  seat  in  the  cars." 

During  the  trial  of  Tirrell,  a  certain  police  officer 
who  was  called  by  the  government,  took  occasion  sev- 
eral times  to  give  his  opinion  very  flippantly  and  out 
of  place  on  several  points  of  the  case.  This  was  soon 
after  the  discovery  of  a  new  planet,  and  the  appear- 
ance of  several  learned  papers  on  it  by  Prof.  Peirce,  of 
Cambridge.  In  the  course  of  Mr.  Choate's  argument, 
and  when  he  came  to  review  the  testimony  of  the  wit- 
ness, he  said,  "  And  then,  gentlemen,  the  witness,  not 
content  with  coloring  and  distorting  the  facts,  gravely 
and  sententiously  gives  us  his  opinion  on  this  and  that 
point  with  all  the  assurance  of  an  expert.  I  wonder 
what  he  thinks  of  the  new  planet,  I  am  dying  to  know 
his  opinion  of  Prof.  Peirce's  theory  of  the  aberration 
of  light  touching  that  stranger  in  the  heavens." 

The  following  ludicrous  exaggeration  long  held  its 
place  among  the  stories  about  the  Court :  — 

In  April,  1847,  the  Joint  Commissioners  of  Massa- 
chusetts and  Rhode  Island,  appointed  to  ascertain  and 
establish  the  boundary  line  between  the  two  States, 


454  MEMOIR  OF  ElIFUS   CHOATE.         [CHAP.  XL 

made  an  agreement  and  presented  it  to  their  respec- 
tive Legislatures. 

Parties  living  in  Massachusetts,  whose  rights  were 
affected  by  this  decision,  petitioned  the  Legislature 
against  the  acceptance  of  the  Commissioners'  report. 
Mr.  Choate  appeared  for  these  remonstrants.  A  por- 
tion of  the  boundary  line  was  described  in  the  agree- 
ment as  follows  :  "  Beginning,"  &c.,  &c.,  "  thence  to 
an  angle  on  the  easterly  side  of  Watuppa  Pond,  thence 
across  the  said  pond  to  the  two  rocks  on  the  westerly 
side  of  said  pond  and  near  thereto,  then  westerly  to 
the  buttonwood  tree  in  the  village  of  Fall  River," 
&c.,  &c. 

In  his  argument,  commenting  on  the  boundary, 
Mr.  Choate  thus  referred  to  this  part  of  the  descrip- 
tion :  — 

"  A  boundary  line  between  two  sovereign  States 
described  by  a  couple  of  stones  near  a  pond,  and  a 
buttonwood  sapling  in  a  village.  The  Commissioners 
might  as  well  have  defined  it  as  starting  from  a  blue 
jay,  thence  to  a  swarm  of  bees  in  hiving-time,  and 
thence  to  five  hundred  foxes  with  firebrands  tied  to 
their  tails!" 

Mr.  Choate's  style  was  peculiar,  and  entirely  his 
own.  Its  exuberance,  its  stateliness  and  dignity,  its 
music  and  its  wealth,  were  as  fascinating  as  they 
were  inimitable.  One  can  hardly  fail  to  recognize, 
even  in  the  least  characteristic  of  his  speeches,  a  true 
nobleness,  a  touch  of  imperial  grace,  such  as  has  been 
vouchsafed  only  to  the  supreme  masters  of  the  lan- 
guage. His  style  has  sometimes  been  criticised  by 
those  who  have  forgotten  that  his  speeches  were 
meant  for  hearers  rather  than  for  readers,  and  that  a 


CHAP.  XL]  HIS    STYLE.  455 

mind  of  such  extraordinary  affluence  and  vigor  will, 
of  necessity,  in  many  respects,  be  a  law  to  itself.  He 
was,  however,  quite  aware  that  a  style  of  greater  sim- 
plicity and  severity  would  be  necessary  for  a  writer ; 
and  this,  probably,  was  one  thing  which  prevented 
him  from  entering  seriously  on  those  literary  labors 
which  were  evidently,  at  one  time,  an  object  of  real 
interest. 

I  am  glad  to  be  able  to  introduce  here  some  subtle 
and  suggestive  remarks  on  this  subject  by  an  obser- 
vant and  thoughtful  critic,  —  Rev.  Joseph  Tracy. 

"  I  do  not  know,"  he  says,  "  that  I  can  describe 
suitably,  on  paper,  that  peculiarity  of  Mr.  Choate's 
style  of  which  we  were  speaking,  and  which  is  so 
marked  in  his  famous  '  long  sentences.'  Many  have 
observed  that  it  was  not  wordiness.  He  had  words 
and  used  them,  in  rich  abundance ;  but  if  you  ex- 
amine even  the  most  sounding  of  his  long  sentences, 
you  find  in  them  no  redundant  words.  Each  of  its 
several  members  is  made  up  of  such  words,  and  of 
such  only,  as  were  needed  for  the  perfect  expression 
of  the  thought. 

"  Nor  was  it  in  that  cumulative  power  by  which 
one  idea,  image,  or  argument,  is  piled  upon  another, 
so  as  to  make  up  an  overwhelming  mass.  He  had 
this  power  in  a  remarkable  degree  ;  but  so  had  many 
others  —  perhaps  almost  all  great  orators.  Cicero 
has  left  some  splendid  examples  of  it. 

"It  was  rather  the  result  of  the  peculiar  logical 
structure  of  his  mind  ;  for  in  him  logic  and  rhetoric 
were  not  separate  departments,  but  one  living  pro- 
cess. He  instinctively  strove  to  present  an  idea,  a 
thought,  in  its  perfect  completeness,  —  the  thought, 


456  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS  CHOATE.         [CHAP.  XL 

the  whole  thought,  and  nothing  but  the  thought ;  so 
to  present  it  that  there  would  be  no  need  of  adding 
to  his  statement  of  it,  subtracting  from  it,  or  in  any 
way  modifying  it,  after  it  had  once  been  made.  He 
seemed  to  use  words  not  exactly  to  convey  ideas  to  his 
hearers,  but  rather  to  assist  and  guide  their  minds  in 
the  work  of  constructing  the  same  ideas  that  were  in 
his  own.  In  carrjdng  their  minds  through  this  pro- 
cess, he  must  give  them,  not  merely  the  idea  which 
had  been  the  result  of  his  own  thinking,  but  its 
elements,  their  proportions,  their  limitations,  their 
bearings  on  the  results.  In  this  process,  clauses  of 
definition,  of  discrimination,  of  limitation,  were  often 
as  necessary  as  those  of  a  contrary  character.  Any 
element  of  thought  which  contributed  to  the  result 
only  in  some  qualified  sense  must  be  mentioned  with 
the  proper  qualification,  lest  there  should  remain  a 
doubt  whether  it  ought  to  be  mentioned  at  all.  It  is 
in  this  respect  that  his  long  sentences  seem  to  me  to 
differ,  characteristically,  from  the  long  sentences  of 
other  orators,  which  are  merely  cumulative.  The 
practical  effect  was,  that  the  hearer  found  himself  not 
merely  overwhelmed  by  the  multitude  of  grand  things 
that  had  been  said,  but  also  led,  by  a  safe  logical  pro- 
cess, to  the  desired  conclusion. 

"  How  else  can  we  account  for  the  effect  which  his 
long  sentences  certainly  did  produce  on  even  common 
minds  ?  Could  such  minds,  after  hearing  one  of 
them,  recollect  and  appreciate  all  the  particulars 
contained  in  it?  But  few,  even  of  educated  men, 
who  read  them,  can  do  that.  The  effect  is  produced 
by  the  logic  which  runs  through  them  and  does  its 
work  during  the  progress  of  the  sentence,  so  that 


CHAP.  XI.]  HIS    LONG  SENTENCES.  457 

when  the  sentence  is  ended  the  conclusion  is 
reached. 

"  A  remarkable  example  of  such  long  sentences  as 
I  have  tried  to  describe,  is  found  in  Mr.  Choate's  re- 
marks at  the  meeting  of  the  Suffolk  Bar  on  the  death 
of  Mr.  Webster.  I  have  often  thought  that  studying 
that  address,  so  as  thoroughly  to  master  it  (and  the 
same  may  be  said  of  his  Eulogy  on  Mr.  Webster,  and 
other  elaborate  performances),  would  be  a  good  ex- 
ercise for  a  theological  student,  about  to  enter  on  the 
study  of  Paul's  Epistles,  where  he  will  find  many  long 
sentences  which  seem  to  be  made  long  on  the  same 
principle,  and  as  a  result  of  the  same  logical  instincts. 
Paul's  parentheses,  like  those  of  Choate,  are  put  in, 
that  the  reader,  when  he  arrives  at  the  end  of  a  sen- 
tence, may  have  constructed  in  his  own  mind  exactly 
the  right  idea,  with  all  the  limitations,  qualifications, 
and  appurtenances  which  are  essential  to  its  identity 
and  completeness." 

Mr.  Choate's  memory  was  exact  and  tenacious.  He 
could  generally  repeat  considerable  portions  of  what 
he  had  recently  read  ;  was  always  ready  with  an  apt 
quotation,  and  able  to  correct  those  who  made  a 
wrong  one.  An  interesting  illustration  of  this  oc- 
curred during  the  trial  of  William  Wyman,  in  1843, 
for  embezzling  the  funds  of  the  Phoenix  Bank.  An 
array  of  counsel  was  assembled  such  as  is  rarely 
seen,  and  the  court-house  was  crowded  with  in- 
tensely interested  spectators.  u  In  the  course  of  the 
trial,  and  in  a  most  exciting  passage,  when  all  the 
counsel  appeared  to  be  intent  upon  the  case  and 
nothing  else,  Mr.  Webster  wrote  on  a  slip  of  paper  a 
favorite  couplet  of  Pope,  and  passed  it  to  Mr.  Choate, 


458  MEMOIR   OF   RUFUS   CHOATE.         [CHAP.  XL 

'Lo  where  Maeotis  sleeps,  and  softly  flows 
The  freezing  Tanais  through  a  waste  of  snows.' 

Mr.  Choate  wrote  at  the  bottom  '  wrong.' 

'  Lo  where  Maeotis  sleeps,  and  hardly  flows 
The  freezing  Tanais  through  a  waste  of  snows.' 

Mr.  Webster  rejoined,  '  right,'  and  offered  a  wager. 
A  messenger  was  despatched  for  Pope,  when  it  ap- 
peared that  Mr.  Choate  was  right.  Mr.  Webster 
gravely  wrote  on  the  copy  of  Pope,  '  spurious  edition/ 
and  the  subject  was  dropped.  All  this  while  the 
spectators  were  in  the  full  belief  that  the  learned 
counsel  were  in  earnest  consultation  on  some  difficult 
point  of  law."  1 

The  profound  admiration  which  Mr.  Choate  felt  for 
Mr.  Webster  was  sincerely  reciprocated.  During  this 
trial  some  ladies  said  to  Mr.  Webster  that  they  longed 
for  the  arguments  to  come  on,  as  they  wished  to  hear 
him.  To  which  he  replied  to  the  effect  that  he  was  a 
matter-of-fact  old  man,  and  that  if  he  ever  had  the 
power  of  interesting,  it  had  gone.  He  then  spoke 
with  great  warmth  and  earnestness  of  Mr.  Choate, 
characterizing  him  as  the  genius  of  the  American 
bar.  He  afterwards  spoke  of  Pinkney,  and  said  that 
Choate  was  the  only  American  lawyer  who  had 
equalled  him,  both  as  a  lawyer  and  an  advocate,  and 
that  he  surpassed  him.  "  In  the  past,"  said  Mr. 
Webster,  "  the  question  was  asked  of  a  rising  lawyer, 
'  how  near  Pinkney  is  he  ?  '  In  the  future  it  will  be, 
how  near  Choate  ?  As  a  mere  dry  lawyer,  he  is 
equal  to  himself  as  an  advocate,  and  what  more  can 
be  said?" 

1  Law  Reporter,  January,  1844. 


CHAP.  XI.]       HIS  FELICITY  OF  QUOTATION.  459 

One  will  not  unfrequently  notice  in  Mr.  Choate's 
speeches  and  writings,  as  they  might  have  in  his 
conversation,  fragmentary  quotations,  —  half-lines  of 
poetry,  —  a  single  catchword  of  a  wise  maxim,  —  a 
partially  translated  proverb, — which  harmonized  with 
his  thought,  but  which  to  those  familiar  with  them 
were  suggestive  of  much  more  than  was  said.  An 
instance  of  his  readiness  in  felicitous  quotation  is 
given  by  Mr.  Parker  in  his  "  Reminiscences,"  which 
I  am  permitted  to  extract. 

"  In  the  winter  of  1850,  a  large  party  was  given  in 
Washington,  and  many  illustrious  personages  were 
present,  who  have  since,  like  Mr.  Choate,  gone  down 
to  the  grave  amid  the  tears  of  their  countrymen.  The 
Senate,  at  that  time  worthy  of  the  name,  was  well 
represented  on  this  occasion  of  festivity,  and  the  play 
and  airy  vivacity  of  the  conversation,  with  '  the  cups 
which  cheer  but  not  inebriate,'  relaxed  at  intervals 
even  senatorial  dignity.  During  the  evening  the 
subject  of  '  Young  America '  was  introduced,  — 
his  waywardness,  his  extravagance,  his  ignorance, 
and  presumption.  Mr.  Webster  observed,  that  he 
hoped  the  youth  would  soon  come  to  his  senses, 
and  atone,  by  the  correctness  of  his  deportment, 
for  his  juvenile  dissipation.  At  the  same  time,  he 
added,  that,  in  his  opinion,  the  only  efficient  rem- 
edy for  the  vice  and  folly  of  the  lad  would  be  found 
in  early  religious  training,  and  stricter  parental  re- 
straint. Mr.  Choate  declared,  that  he  did  not  view 
the  hare-brained  youth  in  the  same  light  with  his 
illustrious  friend ;  that  every  age  and  every  country 
had,  if  not  their  '  Young  America,'  at  least  something 
worse.  The  character  of  Trajan,  the  best  and  purest 


460  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS   CHOATE.         [CHAP.  XL 

of  Roman  emperors,  said  he,  was  unable,  with  all  its 
virtue  and  splendor,  to  check  the  '  Young  Italy '  of 
that  day.  Our  lads  would  seem  to  have  sat  for  the 
picture  which  has  been  drawn  of  the  Roman  youths, 
by  the  hand  of  one  who  seldom  colored  too  highly. 
4  Statim  sapiunt,  statim  sciunt  omnia  ;  neminem  veren- 
tur,  imitantur  neminem,  atque  ipsi  sibi  exempla  sunt,' 
which,  translated,  reads  thus :  '  From  their  cradles 
they  know  all  things,  — they  understand  all  things,  — 
they  have  no  regard  for  any  person  whatever,  high  or 
low,  rich  or  poor,  religious  or  otherwise,  —  and  are 
themselves  the  only  examples  which  they  are  disposed 
to  follow.'  Mr.  Benton  thought  the  quotation  too 
happy  to  be  genuine,  and  demanded  the  author.  Mr. 
Choate,  with  the  utmost  good  humor,  replied,  that  his 
legal  habits  had  taught  him  the  importance  of  citing 
no  case  without  being  able  to  give  his  authorities ; 
he  called  for  the  younger  Pliny,  and  triumphantly 
showed  the  passage,  amid  the  admiration  of  that 
brilliant  assembly,  in  the  23d  letter  of  the  8th  book. 
Our  informant  remarks,  that  the  history  of  literature, 
perhaps,  cannot  show  an  equally  felicitous  quotation." 
His  fondness  for  books  was  a  striking  characteris- 
tic. The  heart  of  his  home  was  his  library.  Hither 
he  retreated  from  the  distractions  of  business,  and 
the  disappointments  of  politics,  to  discourse  with  the 
great  spirits  of  other  times ;  yielding  with  unfailing 
delight  to  the  lofty  stimulus  of  great  minds,  and 
communing  with  them  as  with  friends.  He  reposed 
among  his  books.  He  bought  them  freely,  generally 
for  use,  though  in  some  departments,  and  with  some 
favorite  authors,  he  allowed  free  scope  to  his  tastes, 
and  adorned  his  shelves  with  choice  editions.  In  a 


CHAP.  XL]  HIS  LOVE    FOR  BOOKS.  461 

city  he  gravitated  toward  a  bookstore  or  a  public 
library,  as  if  by  a  fixed  and  unvarying  law  of  nature. 
During  the  earlier  years  of  his  residence  in  Boston, 
when  professional  occupation  allowed  him  leisure,  he 
was  often  found  in  Burnham's  Antiquarian  Bookstore, 
poring  over  the  heterogeneous  treasures  of  that  im- 
mense depository. 

Shortly  after  his  death  there  appeared  in  the  "  New 
York  Times "  a  communication  from  a  well-known 
dealer  in  old  and  rare  books,1  which  merits  preserva- 
tion, as  a  simple,  unvarnished  statement  of  the  truth. 

"  RUFUS  CHOATE'S  LOVE  FOR  BOOKS. 

"The  death  of  this  illustrious  man  brings  to  my 
mind  certain  reminiscences  of  him,  which  I  think 
worthy  of  keeping  in  remembrance. 

"  About  ten  years  ago,  when  on  a  visit,  or  passing 
through  this  city,  Mr.  Choate  called  at  my  store, 
about  ten  o'clock,  A.M.,  and  introduced  himself  as  a 
lover  of  books  and  an  occasional  buyer,  and  then 
desired  to  be  shown  where  the  Metaphysics,  and  the 
Greek  and  Roman  Classics,  stood.  He  immediately 
commenced  his  researches,  with  great  apparent  eager- 
ness ;  nor  did  he  quit  his  toil  till  he  was  compelled 
to  do  so  by  the  store  being  shut  up,  thus  having  been 
over  nine  hours  on  a  stretch,  without  food  or  drink. 
He  remarked  that  'he  had  quite  exhausted  himself, 
mentally  as  well  as  bodily.'  He  had  been  greatly 
interested,  as  well  as  excited,  at  what  he  had  seen ; 
'  for,'  continued  he,  4 1  have  discovered  many  books 
that  I  have  never  seen  before,  and  seen  those  that 
I  had  never  heard  of;  but,  above  all,  I  have  been 

1  William  Gowans. 


462  MEMOIR   OF   RUFUS   CHOATE.         [CHAP.  XL 

more  than  overjoyed  at  discovering,  in  your  collec- 
tion, a  copy  of  the  Greek  bishop's 1  famous  commen- 
tary on  the  writings  of  Homer,  in  seven  volumes, 
quarto,  a  work  that  I  have  long  had  an  intense  desire 
to  possess.'  He  afterwards  purchased  the  precious 
volumes.  I  had  the  seven  volumes  bound  in  three, 
in  handsome  and  appropriate  style.  These  works  no 
doubt  still  grace  his  library.  W.  G." 

To  the  last  he  was  studious  of  letters,  full  of 
sympathy  with  literary  men  and  their  works,  and 
especially  fond  of  the  classics,  and  of  imaginative 
literature.  During  the  most  busy  period  of  his  pro- 
fessional labor  he  managed  to  secure  at  least  an  hour 
every  day  —  rescued  from  sleep,  or  society,  or  recrea- 
tion —  for  Greek  or  Latin,  or  some  other  favorite 
study.  He  sometimes,  at  the  commencement  of  a 
college  term,  would  mark  out  his  course  of  study  by 
the  curriculum  as  laid  down  in  the  catalogue,  and 
thus  keep  on  pari  passu  with  one  or  two  of  the  classes. 
He  was  indifferent  to  ordinary  amusements,  had  no 
love  for  horses,  or  field  sports ;  and  seemed  hardly  to 
desire  any  other  rest  than  that  which  came  from  a 
change  of  intellectual  action.  In  the  later  years  of 
his  life  he  undertook  the  study  of  German  with  one 
of  his  daughters,  learning  the  grammar  during  his 
morning  walks,  and  reciting  at  table. 

If  the  question  were  asked,  to  what  pursuits  Mr. 

1  Eustathius  (Archbishop  of  Thessalonica)  was  born  in  the  twelfth 
century  at  Constantinople.  He  was  the  author  of  the  well-known 
voluminous  commentary  on  Homer,  written  in  the  same  language  as 
the  Iliad.  His  commentaries  were  first  printed  at  Rome,  1550,  in  two 
volumes  folio.  Besides  these  commentaries,  he  was  the  author  of 
several  other  critical  works. 


CHAP.  XI.]  HIS   LOVE   FOR  BOOKS.  463 

Choate's  tastes,  unobstructed,  would  have  led  him,  I 
am  inclined  to  think  the  answer  would  be  —  to  letters 
rather  than  to  the  law.1  Books  were  his  passion. 
His  heart  was  in 

"  The  world  of  thought,  the  world  of  dreams." 

with  philosophers,  historians,  and  poets ;  and  had  his 
fortune  allowed,  he  would  have  endeavored  to  take 
rank  with  them,  —  to  illustrate,  perhaps,  some  great 
period  of  history  with  a  work  worthy  of  the  best 
learning  and  the  widest  culture ;  or  to  unfold  the 
sound  and  deep  principles  of  a  true  political  phil- 
osophy. He  might  not,  indeed,  have  avoided,  but 
rather  have  sought,  public  life  ;  for  he  felt  its  fascina- 
tions, and  fairly  estimated  its  grand  opportunities. 
His  ambition  might  have  been  to  move  in  the  sphere 
of  Burke  (of  whom  he  sometimes  reminds  one)  or 
Macaulay,  rather  than  that  of  Erskine  or  Eldon. 

1  In  illustration  not  only  of  his  love  of  letters,  but  of  the  remark 
which  he  himself  once  made  that  he  "often  found  a  single  winged 
word  as  suggestive  as  the  most  germinant  thought,"  Mr.  E.  B. 
Gillett  writes  in  a  letter  to  Judge  Neilson  :  "  I  called  upon  Mr.  Choate 
when  he  was  confined  to  his  house  by  a  lame  knee.  ...  On  one 
occasion  I  found  him  before  his  table,  turning  the  leaves  of  Macau- 
lay's  History.  I  inquired  if  he  was  revising  the  judgments  recently 
expressed  in  his  lecture  upon  that  subject.  He  replied  no  ;  that  he 
was  reading  Cowley's  Poems,  which  always  greatly  interested  him ; 
that  he  had  just  discovered  in  the  volume  an  expression  similar  to 
that  found  in  the  first  book  of  'Paradise  Lost,'  —  'The  height  of  this 
great  argument,'  which  he  thought  a  fine  and  extraordinary  phrase. 
He  had  thereupon  begged  his  wife,  '  the  gracious  purveyor  to  his 
infirmities,'  to  hand  down  Macaulay  to  him,  that  he  might  detect 
whether  Milton  had  '  hooked '  from  Cowley,  or  Cowley  from  Milton. 
'  But,'  said  he,  '  Cowley  has  got  him.  It  is  however  only  the  equi- 
table thing.  Milton  had  a  right  to  forage  the  whole  intellectual 
world  in  the  way  of  reprisal,  for  his  disjecta  membra  are  scattered 
thick  through  all  literature.' " 


464  MEMOIR  OF    RUFUS    CHOATE.          [CHAP.  XI. 

Hence,  though  bringing  to  the  Law  marvellous  apti- 
tude, wonderful  diligence,  and  entire  self-devotion, 
sacrificing,  as  some  thought,  in  the  sharp  contests  of 
the  bar,  powers  which  might  better  have  graced  an- 
other and  higher  sphere,  —  he  was  never  a  mere 
lawyer.  And  yet,  so  absorbed  was  he  in  his  profes- 
sion, —  it  was  a  necessity,  and  at  least  a  second  love, 
—  that  with  the  exception  of  a  few  columns  in  the 
newspapers,  a  brief  article  in  the  "  North  American 
Review,"  a  few  speeches  and  orations,  I  know  not 
that  he  fully  prepared  any  thing  for  the  press. 

He  cared  nothing  for  money;  little,  too  little  per- 
haps, for  society,  beyond  his  own  immediate  friends  ; 
and  less  than  any  able  and  brilliant  man  I  ever  knew, 
or  almost  ever  heard  of,  for  fame ;  but  study,  books, 
intellectual  labor  and  achievements,  poetry,  truth  — 
these  were  controlling  elements  of  his  life.  However 
prostrated  or  worn,  a  new  intellectual  stimulus  would 
raise  him  in  an  instant.  "  One  day,"  says  a  former 
student  of  his,1  "he  came  into  the  office  tired  and 
sick ;  the  great  lines  of  his  face  yellow  and  deep  ;  his 
eyes  full  of  a  blaze  of  light,  jet  heavy  and  droop- 
ing. Throwing  himself  exhausted  on  the  sofa,  he 
exclaimed,  '  The  law  —  to  be  a  good  lawyer  is  no 
more  than  to  be  a  good  carpenter.  It  is  knack,  — 
simply  running  a  machine.'  Soon  after  a  man  came 
in  with  a  splendid  edition  of  Sir  William  Hamilton's 
4  Reid,'  fresh  from  London.  He  was  changed  in  a 
moment.  Springing  from  the  sofa,  he  glanced  ad- 
miringly over  the  philosophy,  saying,  '  Here's  food ; 
now  I  will  go  home  and  feast.  There's  true  poetry 

1  Rev.  J.  M.  Marsters,  to  whom  I  am  indebted  for  many  interest- 
ing particulars. 


CHAP.  XL]  HIS   LOVE  FOR   BOOKS.  465 

in  these  metaphysicians.'     And   so  he  went  off  to 
refresh  himself  with  that  light  reading."  1 

The  following  recollections  of  Mr.  Choate  are 
from  a  gentleman  who  saw  him  frequently  and 
familiarly :  — 

"  DEAR  SIR,  —  The  principal  reason  for  my  neg- 
lect to  send  you  any  reminiscences  of  Mr.  Choate  is, 
that  when  I  have  tried  to  put  them  into  shape,  they 
have  seemed  too  meagre  and  insignificant  to  be  worth 
your  notice.  Indeed,  I  think  that  the  recollections 
of  his  daily  life,  retained  by  any  one  who  saw  him 
familiarly  '  in  his  habit  as  he  lived,'  are  extremely 
difficult  of  development  in  words.  Every  thing  which 

1  Speaking  of  his  love  of  books,  Mr.  Gillett  says  that,  being  in 
Mr.  Choate's  library,  he  noticed  one  shelf  filled  with  different  editions 
of  the  Greek  Testament,  some  in  elegant  modern  binding,  and  others 
in  old  vellum.  Alluding  to  this,  Mr.  Choate  replied,  "You  recall  a 
visit  I  once  received  in  my  rooms  from  Mr.  Webster,  when  I  was 
Senator  in  Washington.  .  .  . 

"  I  saw  Mr.  Webster's  wonderful  black  eyes  peering  over  my 
books,  as  if  in  search,  and  asked  him  what  he  would  please  to  have. 
He  turned  to  me  with  one  of  his  smiles,  such  as  never  transfigured 
the  face  of  any  other  man  or  woman,  and  said  :  '  I  observe,  brother 
Choate,  that  you  are  true  to  your  instincts  in  Washington  as  at 
home  ;  seven  editions  of  the  Greek  Testament,  but  not  a  copy  of  the 
Constitution.' " 

The  Ilev.  Dr.  Storrs,  in  a  letter  to  Judge  Neilson,  says  with  as 
much  truth  as  beauty :  "  He  was  a  scholar  by  instinct,  and  by  the 
determining  force  of  his  nature.  All  forms  of  high  intellectual 
activity  had  charm  and  reward  for  his  sympathetic  and  splendid 
intelligence.  He  especially  delighted,  however,  in  history,  philoso- 
phy, eloquence,  and  the  immense  riches  of  the  ancient  literature. 
His  library  was  peopled  to  him  with  living  minds.  The  critical  and 
august  procedures  in  history  were  as  evident  to  him  as  processions 
in  the  streets.  No  solemn  and  majestic  voice  had  spoken,  from  the 
Athenian  bema,  in  Roman  forum,  in  English  Parliament,  whose  tones, 
even  whose  vital  words,  did  not  still  echo  in  his  ear." 

30 


466  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS   CHOATE.          [CHAP.  XL 

he  said  produced  an  impression  on  the  hearer  ;  but 
an  attempt  to  repeat  the  saying,  and  reproduce  the 
impression  on  one  who  did  not  know  him,  results  in 
failure.  The  flavor  is  gone.  It  proceeded  from  the 
time,  the  occasion,  the  manner,  the  tone,  the  personal 
magnetism  of  the  man.  There  were  some  subjects  on 
which  Mr.  Choate  always  liked  to  talk,  —  about  his 
contemporaries,  or  on  his  favorite  classics,  or  to  young 
men  about  their  studies,  or  the  best  preparation  for 
practical  success,  or  the  true  ends  and  aims  of  life, 
and  the  ways  and  means  of  civil  and  professional 
activity  and  usefulness. 

"  I  used,  when  I  knew  Mr.  Choate  to  be  at  leisure 
and  alone,  to  stroll  from  my  room  into  his,  and  start 
some  topic.  He  would  at  once  enter  into  it  with  all 
interest,  and  as  if  that  were  the  very  subject  he  had 
been  studying  most  carefully  and  recently.  You  may 
imagine,  I  was  always  inclined  to  hear  rather  than  to 
be  heard.  Still,  his  remarks  were  always  suggestive 
of  answers ;  and  it  was  easier  to  talk  with  him  —  really 
to  converse,  not  merely  to  listen  —  than  with  any  man 
of  note  whom  it  has  been  my  fortune  to  meet.  He 
did  not  lecture  nor  preach.  Frequently  he  drew  out 
the  knowledge  or  opinions  of  the  person  conversing 
with  him,  —  whether  young  or  old,  learned  or  other- 
wise, —  by  direct  questions ;  and  in  such  cases  he 
always  seemed  to  be  actually  seeking  information,  — 
not  attempting  to'  find  out,  like  a  tutor  at  a  recita- 
tion, how  much  the  catechised  individual  knew.  I 
always  felt,  after  spending  ten  minutes  with  him,  as 
if  I  had  been  not  only  stocked  with  fresh  stores,  but 
developed,  —  quite  as  much  educated  as  instructed. 
Then,  what  he  said  was  so  stimulant  and  encouraging. 


CHAP.  XL]  HIS  CONVERSATION.  467 

One  always  went  away,  not  depressed  by  the  sense  of 
his  own  inferiority,  but  determined  to  know  more 
about  what  he  had  been  talking  of,.and  confident  that 
he  had  been  put  in  the  right  way  to  learn  more. 

«'  Nothing  pleased  his  young  friends  so  much  as  the 
deference  with  which  he  received  what  they  had  to 
say.  I  remember  his  once  asking  what  I  thought  of  a 
point  which  he  was  about  to  argue  to  the  Bench,  and 
about  which  I  had  very  imperfect  ideas.  I  made  some 
sort  of  vague  reply  ;  but  was  agreeably  surprised, 
shortly  afterwards,  by  hearing  my  exact  words  intro- 
duced to  the  full  Court  in  an  abundance  of  good  com- 
pany, and  in  a  connection  which  gave  them  some 
significance.  The  junior  associate  in  a  case  could  not 
whisper  to  him  in  the  middle  of  an  argument  without 
his  saying  to  judge  or  jury,  '  My  learned  brother  has 
just  suggested  to  me,'  —  and  the  suggestion,  or  some- 
thing like  it,  would  come  forth,  freed  from  error  and 
crudity,  illustrated,  and  made  telling. 

"  His  serious  conversation  was  always  exact  and 
terse  in  expression,  and  he  disliked  any  looseness 
in  that  respect  in  others.  He  asked  me  once  what 
the  judge  had  charged  the  jury  in  a  certain  case.  I 
answered  — '  That  they  must  find  the  fact  thus  and 
so,'  —  meaning  that  they  were  charged,  unless  they 
found  it  so,  not  to  bring  in  a  verdict  for  the  plaintiff. 
He  replied  very  quickly,  '  I  suppose  he  told  them  to 
find  it  as  it  was  really,  didn't  he  ? '  In  grammar  and 
pronunciation  he  was  precise  even  in  his  peculiarities ; 
and  any  error  he  would  reprove  by  introducing  the 
same  into  his  next  sentence  with  — '  as  you  call  it.' 

"  Mr.  Choate's  playful  conversation  it  seems  impos- 
sible to  put  into  a  book,  and  retain  the  sparkle.  And 


468  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS  CHOATE.         [CHAP.  XI. 

yet  his  quaintness  was  perhaps  his  most  distinguishing 
characteristic  to  those  with  whom  he  was  intimate. 
They  remember  him  asking  after  his  only  grand- 
daughter with  '  How  is  the  boy  ? '  —  or  coming  into  a 
room  with  a  question  or  a  remark  wholly  incongruous 
with  the  time  and  the  surroundings  ;  —  or  interspers- 
ing the  business  of  a  trial  with  all  sorts  of  ludicrous 
remark  and  by-play,  audible  and  visible  only  to  those 
just  around  him  in  the  bar ;  —  or  speaking  of  a>  hus- 
band, from  whom  he  had  just  obtained  a  settlement 
for  his  client,  an  injured  but  not  very  amiable  wife,  as 

a  sinner,  and  adding,  '  Mrs. is  a  sinner,  too,'  — 

then  immediately  correcting  himself  with  'No,  Sir, 
she  is  not  a  sinner,  for  she  is  our  client,  but  she  is  cer- 
tainly a  very  disagreeable  saint ;  '  —  or  ingeniously 
harassing  a  nervous  legal  opponent,  in  private  con- 
sultation upon  a  compromise,  until  he  rushed  from 
the  room  in  distraction,  and  then  quietly  finishing  the 
sentence  to  the  nervous  gentleman's  associate,  as  if  it 
had  been  originally  addressed  to  him,  and  his  friend's 
departure  had  not  been  noticed.  All  these  things, 
amusing  and  puzzling  when  seen  as  well  as  heard,  are 
flat  and  stale  in  the  mere  relation. 

"  I  have  mentioned  how  much  Mr.  Choate  liked  to 
talk  upon  the  classics.  His  reputation  as  a  classical 
scholar  was,  as  you  know,  very  high,  and  I  think 
deservedly  so.  He  had  all  the  qualifications,  except 
time,  for  fine  scholarship  in  this  department,  —  an 
ardent  love  of  the  subject,  a  fondness  for  the  general 
study  of  language,  a  vast  and  accurate  memory,  and 
great  assiduity  and  minuteness  in  investigation.  You 
know  how  rich  his  library  was  in  classical  works;  and 
I  always  used  to  see  upon  his  office-table  the  German 


CHAP.  XL]  HIS    SCHOLARSHIP.  469 

periodical  catalogues  of  new  editions  and  philological 
publications.  I  do  not  suppose  that  he  equalled  the 
linguists  of  the  universities  in  thoroughness  and  pre- 
cision of  learning.  This  was  not  compatible  with  the 
variety  and  pressure  of  his  other  pursuits.  But  dur- 
ing the  few  minutes  which  he  daily  bestowed  upon 
Latin  and  Greek,  he  studied  rather  than  read,  spend- 
ing the  time  upon  one  sentence,  not  upon  several 
pages.  With  half-a-dozen  editions  of  his  authors  open 
before  him,  and  all  the  standard  lexicons  and  gram- 
mars at  hand,  he  referred  to  each  in  turn,  and 
compared  and  digested  their  various  authority  and 
opinion.  I  imagine  he  always  translated  (not  con- 
tenting himself  with  the  idea  in  its  original  dress)  for 
the  sake  of  greater  precision  of  conception,  and  also 
of  practice  in  idiomatic  English.  You  will  notice  in 
his  written  translations  how  he  strives  to  find  a  phrase 
which  will  sound  as  familiar  to  an  English  ear,  as  the 
original  to  that  of  a  Greek  or  Roman.  When  he  uses 
an  ancient  idiom,  in  translation  or  original  composi- 
tion, it  seems  intentional,  and  as  if  he  thought  it 
would  bear  transplanting. 

"  In  his  scholarship,  as  in  other  things,  he  was 
anxious  to  be  accurate,  and  spared  no  pains  in  inves- 
tigating a  disputed  point.  In  this,  as  in  law,  the 
merest  novice  could  put  him  upon  inquiry,  by  doubt- 
ing his  opinion.  He  was  not  positive  at  the  outset, 
but  set  himself  to  studying  at  once  ;  and  when  he 
had  finally  reviewed  his  position  no  one  could  stir 
him  from  his  final  conclusion.  I  remember  once 
showing  him  a  new  Quintilian  w]iich  I  had  bought. 
He  opened  it,  and  began  translating  aloud.  Dis- 
agreeing with  his  translation  of  some  technical  word, 


470  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS   CHOATE.         [CHAP.  XL 

I  called  his  attention  to  it.  He  heard  what  I  had  to 
say,  and  said  little  in  return.  The  next  day  he  came 
armed  with  authorities,  and  challenged  me  to  support 
my  position.  I  found  some  authorities  on  my  side ; 
but  I  think  he  did  not  let  me  rest  for  weeks,  nor  until 
we  had  between  us  brought  every  thing  in  the  books 
to  bear  upon  the  question.  The  result  was,  that  I 
was  convinced  he  was  right  at  first. 

"  Nothing  pleased  him  more  than  to  bring  his  classics 
to  bear  upon  his  daily  pursuits.  He  quoted  Latin  and 
Greek  to  juries,  sometimes  much  to  their  astonishment. 
He  wished  to  be  such  a  legal  orator  as  Demosthenes 
and  Cicero.  He  used  to  say  that  if  he  desired  to 
form  a  nisi-prius  lawyer,  he  should  make  him,  above 
all,  study  Quintilian.  He  delighted  in  Thucydides 
as  illustrating  the  great  question  of  confederation  or 
disunion  between  small  republics.  'These  authors, 
and  Homer  and  Horace  for  relaxation,  and  Tacitus 
for  comparison  with  Thucydides  as  a  philosophical 
historian,  were  his  favorite  and  principal  classical 
reading. 

"  Greek  history  was  a  constant  study  with  him.  I 
have  no  doubt  that  at  one  time  he  meditated  a  work 
upon  it,  and  sketched  some  plans  and  collected  some 
materials.  He  was  always  enthusiastic  upon  this 
subject.  I  shall  never  forget  the  animation  with 
which,  finding  his"  son,  Rufus,  and  myself  reading  the 
part  of  Herodotus  preceding  the  first  Persian  war,  he 
broke  out  with,  'You  are  just  seeing  the  curtain  rising 
on  the  great  drama.' 

"Mr.  Choate's  activity  was,  as  you  know,  perfectly 
restless.  He  could  not  endure  any  thing  that  seemed 
like  trifling  with  time.  Formal  dinner-parties,  un- 


CHAP.  XI.]  HIS    SCHOLARSHIP.  471 

less  they  were  also  feasts  of  reason,  he  studiously 
eschewed.  The  mere  conventionalities  of  society 
bored  him. 

"  Unceasing  as  was  his  labor,  he  was,  nevertheless, 
a  great  procrastinator.  He  could  not  prepare  his 
cases  for  trial  weeks  and  months  in  advance,  as  is  the 
habit  of  some  of  our  lawyers.  He  said  to  me  once, 
'I  cannot  get  up  the  interest  until  the  struggle  is 
close  at  hand ;  then  I  think  of  nothing  else  till  it  is 
over.'  He  has  sometimes  been  known  not  to  have 
put  a  word  of  an  oration  on  paper,  at  a  time  when  the 
day  of  delivery  was  so  near  that  an  ordinary  man 
would  have  thought  the  interval  even  too  short  for 
mere  revision  and  correction.  But  he  was  seldom 
caught  actually  unprepared.  The  activity  of  the 
short  period  of  preparation  was  intense ;  and  as  at 
some  time  or  other  in  his  life  he  had  studied  almost 
every  thing,  and  as  he  never  forgot  any  thing  that  he 
once  knew,  his  amount  and  range  of  acquisition  gave 
him  a  reserved  force  for  every  emergency,  which 
could  be  brought  into  instant  use.  Moreover,  his 
grasp  of  a  subject  was  so  immediate,  that  he  did  as 
much  in  a  moment  as  another  could  in  a  day.  He 
would  sometimes  be  retained  in  a  cause  just  going  to 
trial,  and  before  his  junior  had  finished  his  opening, 
Mr.  Choate  would  seem  to  know  more  about  that  case 
than  any  other  man  in  the  court-room.  His  mental 
rapidity  showed  itself  in  every  thing.  It  was  won- 
derful to  see  him  run  through  the  leaves  of  a  series  of 
digests,  and  strike  at  a  glance  upon  what  would  most 
strongly  avail  him,  and  reject  thg  weak  or  irrelevant. 
So  in  all  his  reading  he  distilled  the  spirit  (if  there 
was  any)  instantly  from  any  dilution." 


472  MEMOIR   OF   EUFUS    CHOATE.          [CHAP.  XL 

I  shall  venture  to  give  here  a  few  familiar  reminis- 
cences of  Mr.  Choate's  home-life,  exactly  as  they 
were  written  by  a  daughter,  for  the  amusement  of 
one  of  his  grandchildren,  without  thought  of  their 
serving  any  other  purpose. 

••  Whoever  had  seen  your  grandpapa  with  any  of 
us  children  would  have  soon  found  that  with  all  his 
study  and  hard  work,  he  always  had  time  to  make 
home  happy,  and  romped  and  played  with  us  to  our 
hearts'  content,  —  laughed  at  our  dolls  and  cats,  read 
our  compositions,  heard  our  lessons,  and  when  a 
leisure  evening  came  would  join  us  in  our  games  of 
Royal  Goose,  and  Loto,  which  was  his  especial 
favorite.  I  am  afraid  because,  for  some  unknown 
reason,  he  always  got  the  candy  in  the  pool !  .  .  .  But 
we  thought  the  best  game  of  all  with  him  was  tag, 
and  that  always  came  off  just  after  dinner,  before  he 
went  back  to  his  office.  There  never  could  be  again 
such  a  noise  as  we  made,  and  your  poor  grandmamma 
would  have  to  shut  her  ears  and  hide  herself  from  the 
tumult.  We  always  ended  by  rushing  after  him, 
sometimes  far  into  the  street,  and  would  not  give  up 
until  he  allowed  himself  to  be  tagged  the  last.  But 
although  he  was  so  frolicsome  and  bubbling  up  with 
fun  when  with  us  alone,  he  would  change  wholly  if 
any  &  outsider '  by  any  chance  were  with  us.  If  one 
of  our  playmates  came  in  during  our  game  of  tag,  he 
at  once  stopped  the  game,  took  his  green  bag  and 
was  off. 

"  And  he  was  just  as  fond  of  playing  with  you  as 
he  ever  was  with  us ;  and  when  you  were  brought 
into  the  city  from  Dorchester  and  were  the  centre  of 
an  admiring  group  of  uncles  and  aunts,  grandpapa 


CHAP.  XL]  HOME-LIFE.  473 

would  dart  in  and  catch  you  up  and  run  with  you  in 
his  arms  to  the  library,  and  then  he  would  lock  the 
door  so  as  to  have  you  all  to  himself,  and  sometimes 
we  would  peep  in  and  see  him  lying  on  the  floor  to 
let  you  have  a  free  pull  at  his  curls,  or  he  would 
show  you  pictures,  or  chase  you  about  the  room  ; 
until  having  expended  from  half  an  hour  to  an  hour 
in  this  way  he  would  return  you  to  me,  saying  he 
didn't  think  much  of  you  any  way,  and  couldn't  for 
his  life  see  what  there  was  about  you  that  attracted 
people  ;  that  he'd  had  you  in  the  library  for  an  hour, 
and  there  was  nothing  satisfactory  about  you. 

**  He  used  to  love  to  have  us  sing  to  him,  and  there 
was  hardly  a  day  when  he  did  not  steal  a  little  time 
to  hear  some  of  his  favorites,  and  never  a  Sunday 
evening  passed  without  our  singing,  all  together,  the 
hymns  and  chants  he  loved  so  well.  I  can  hear  him 
now  calling  for  one  after  another,  and  for  the  last, 
*  Now,  children,  let  us  have  China :  sing  up  loud  and 
clear.'  —  And  such  good  times  we  used  to  have  at 
dinner  with  him,  and  how  with  all  the  fun  he  would 
try  to  teach  us  something,  and  often  he  would  call 
out,  4  Not  a  child  at  this  table,  I  suppose,  can  tell 
me  where  t his  line  comes  from ; '  and  then  he  would 
repeat  it,  and  perhaps  one  of  us  would  be  fortunate 
enough  to  know,  and  if  all  did,  which  sometimes 
happened,  you  can  imagine  what  a  noise  we  made, 
calling  it  out  all  together.  It  did  not  trouble  him  at 
all  when  we  would  talk  and  discuss  among  ourselves, 
and  he  would  take  an  interest  in  each  one's  particular 
views  from  oldest  to  youngest. 

"  He  wanted  us  to  like  books,  and  always  gave 
them  to  us  for  our  Christmas  and  birthday  presents, 


474  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS  CHOATE.        [CHAP.  XL 

and  he  made  these  come  round  pretty  often  too.  I 
remember  feeling  something  hard  under  my  pillow 
one  night,  and  took  out  a  book,  which  proved  to  be  a 
beautiful  English  edition  of  Miss  Edgeworth's  Moral 
Tales,  bound  in  purple  morocco !  How  often  he  used 
to  say  to  us,  '  Be  good  children  ;  be  accurate  and 
honest,  and  love  your  books.' 

"  He  was  always  so  sympathizing  and  generous 
when  any  one  was  in  trouble  or  difficulty,  and  would 
never  fail  to  help  them  if  they  applied  to  him,  and 
sometimes  he  helped  the  wrong  one.  We  used  to 
laugh  at  him  a  great  deal  whenever  he  was  imposed 
upon.  Once,  especially,  I  remember,  when  we  were 
all  seated  at  the  dinner-table,  the  servant  handed 
him  a  card  upon  which  was  written  a  gentleman's 
name,  with  his  title  '  Chief  Justice  of  Arkansas.'  So 
grandpapa  left  the  table  and  went  into  the  library 
where  the  gentleman  was  waiting,  and  after  being 
absent  a  short  time  returned,  and  told  us  that  the 
Chief  Justice  seemed  very  glad  to  meet  him  again, 
and  said  he  remembered  seeing  him  very  often  in 
Washington.  I  shall  never  forget  how  troubled  an 
expression  he  had  when  he  said  to  grandmamma, 
'  Helen,  I  was  mortified  that  I  had  quite  forgotten 
him ; '  and  then  he  went  on  to  say  that  the  Chief 
Justice  had  been  very  unfortunate  in  losing  his 
money,  and  as  he  was  quite  a  stranger  he  had  no  one 
to  call  upon,  and  apologized  over  and  over  again  for 
the  liberty  he  was  taking,  which  your  grandpapa 
wouldn't  listen  to  at  all,  and  assured  him  that  it  was 
a  pleasure  to  assist  him.  So  the  Chief  Justice  retired 
with  renewed  thanks,  promising  to  repay  just  as 
soon  as  he  should  hear  from  his  friends,  which  would 


CHAP.  XI.]  HOME-LIFE.  475 

be  in  a  day  or  two.  But  days  and  months  and  years 
rolled  away,  and  the  gentleman  quite  forgot  his 
promises,  or  else  never  heard  from  his  friends,  which 
is  quite  sad  to  think  of.  In  the  mean  time  we  were 
never  tired  of  asking  him,  '  Have  you  heard  lately 
from  your  friend  the  Chief  Justice  of  Arkansas  ?  ' 

"  Whenever  he  went  away  from  home,  which  he 
often  had  to  do,  he  would  send  us  such  nice  letters ; 
and  he  tried  to  print  them  for  us,  as  his  writing  was 
just  a  little  bit  hard  to  read.  Many  wiser  heads  than 
ours  would  have  puzzled  long  even  over  his  printing, 
but  in  the  great  red  seal  of  the  letter  we  would 
almost  always  find  a  silver  quarter  of  a  dollar,  which 
seemed  a  fortune  to  us. 

"He  never  was  too  weary,  or  busy,  or  sick,  to 
have  us  near  him  ;  and  one  of  the  earliest  memories 
'I  have  is  that  of  seeing  him  at  his  high  desk,  where 
he  always  wrote  standing,  with  my  little  three-year- 
old  sister,  whom  you  never  saw,  sitting  on  his 
shoulder  playing  with  his  curls,  her  golden  hair 
floating  about  her  face  and  his. 

"  We  children  used  to  have  very  fierce  wordy  war- 
fare with  our  playmates  as  to  the  merits  of  our  re- 
spective parents  ;  and  I  well  remember  that  one 
little  girl  (whom  I'm  afraid  I  quite  hated  for  it) 
convincingly  showed  her  father  to  be  taller  and 
stronger,  and  that  he  had  more  hair,  and  longer 
whiskers,  and  more  of  all  the  other  virtues,  than 
your  grandpapa,  when  I  brought  the  dispute  to  a 
triumphant  conclusion  by  declaring  that  my  father 
could  repeat  the  story  of  The  House  that  Jack  Built 
quicker  than  her  father  could,  which  she  was  unable 
to  deny,  because  her  father  had  never  told  it  to  her 


476  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS  CHOATE.         [CHAP.  XL 

at  all,  and  so,  all  comparison  being  out  of  the  question, 
—  since  my  father  could  do  something  well  which 
her  father  never  had  done  in  any  way,  —  I  remained 
the  victor. 

"  When  your  grandmamma  went  away  on  a  visit, 
the  amusing  of  us  children  and  keeping  us  happy  was 
grandpapa's  work.  And  pretty  hard  work  it  must 
sometimes  have  been,  for  we  would  insist  on  his  writ- 
ing stories  and  songs  ;  and  on  one  occasion  he  kept  us 
very  merry  the  whole  evening  till  bed-time,  by  writing 
a  parody  on  Wordsworth's  '  Pet  Lamb,'  writing  a 
verse  when  we  had  got  to  be  unusually  turbulent,  and 
thus  stilling  the  tempest  of  noise  during  the  time  we 
took  to  read  and  learn  it.  We  all  thought  that  he  had 
unlimited  powers,  and  that  Scott  was  poor  compared 
with  the  stories  which  he  composed.  I  should  really 
like  very  much  to  read  one  of  them  now,  and  see  what 
it  was  that  so  fascinated  us. 

"  He  was  very  particular  as  to  the  books  we  read, 
and  it  used  to  seem  to  me  as  though  almost  every 
novel  I  could  lay  my  hands  upon  had  a  '  bad  tone  ' 
to  it.  Our  staples  were  Scott,  Barbauld,  and  Edge- 
worth.  He  always  lured  us  to  read  poetry,  especially 
the  Bible,  Shakspeare,  Cowper,  and  Wordsworth. 
He  always  contrived  to  give  us  the  idea,  that  when  a 
boy  he  was  very  fond  of  these  mature  writers,  but 
once  confessed  that  he  perfectly  well  remembered  his 
thrill  of  pleasure  upon  taking  up  a  novel  which  began 
with '  "  Villain,  beware,"  exclaimed  a  voice  ' !  When 
we  were  older  we  read  and  were  very  fond  of  Tenny- 
son, and  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Browning,  whom  he,  to  vex  us, 
and  pretending  not  to  know,  would  always  call  the 
Brownriggs.  He  would  gently  stimulate  our  enthu- 


CHAP.  XI.]  HOME-LIFE.  477 

siasm  by  denying  their  merits,  and  making  us  find  out 
and  express  in  language  the  reason  for  the  faith  that 
was  in  us  ;  and  then,  after  a  hard  contest,  he  would 
always  give  in  and  say, '  Well,  well,  there  is  something 
in  these  Brownriggs,  after  all,'  and  adding  '  in  poetry 
there  are  many  mansions.'  Then  he  would  make  us 
read  again  such  passages  as  had  struck  him.  He  al- 
ways, or  almost  always,  realized  such  lines  by  applying 
them  to  some  action  or  some  person  ;  as,  for  example, 
he  stopped  me  at  Mr.  Browning's  lines, 

'Lived  in  his  mild  and  magnificent  eye, 
Learned  his  great  language,  caught  his  clear  accents, 
Made  him  our  pattern  to  live  and  to  die.' 

and  say,  '  What  a  picture  of  Mr.  Webster  that  is ! ' 
To  the  last  day  of  his  life  he  teased  us  in  a  good- 
natured  way,  and  we  teased  back  again  ;  but  my  re- 
membrance is  that  he  almost  always  came  off  victor. 
On  one  occasion  your  Aunt  Helen  had  sat  up  quite 
late  in  the  evening  to  finish  a  composition,  which  she 
handed  to  him  the  next  morning  for  correction  and 
criticism,  saying  she  was  so  wearied  in  writing  it  that 
she  had  slept  after  it  for  twelve  hours.  He  read  it 
carefully,  and  handed  it  to  her,  saying,  with  great 
gravity,  '  I  don't  wonder  at  your  long  sleep  after  such 
an  effort :  history  has  but  one  parallel,  the  sleep  of 
the  elder  Pitt  after  one  of  his  great  speeches.' 

"  He  worked  more  continuously  than  any  one  I  have 
ever  seen,  so  that,  finally  incessant  labor  got  to  be  a 
necessity.  Nothing  in  the  shape  of  pleasure  would 
induce  him  to  be  away  from  his  library  for  more  than 
a  day  or  two  at  a  time  ;  and  when  we  wanted  him, 
when  quite  ill,  to  pass  a  week  with  us  in  the  middle 
of  the  summer  at  the  seashore,  he  said  '  A  week !  why 


478  MEMOIR   OF   RUFUS   CHOATE.         [CHAP.  XI. 

in  forty-eight  hours  the  only  question  left  would  be, 
Where  is  the  highest  rock  and  the  deepest  water  ?  ' 

One  cannot  help  seeing  from  these  pictures  for  a 
child  that  Mr.  Choate's  life  at  home  was  the  most 
hearty,  cheerful,  and  affectionate  that  could  be  im- 
agined. He  was  kind,  familiar,  and  playful  with  his 
children,  full  of  jocoseness,  sensitive,  and  with  a  fem- 
inine susceptibility  and  tact.  When  his  daughters, 
from  out  of  town,  came  into  the  house,  if  he  were  in 
his  library,  unless  they  came  to  see  him  at  once,  he 
would  generally  walk  to  the  head  of  the  stairs,  and 
call  their  attention  for  a  moment  to  himself,  by  utter- 
ing some  jocose  remark,  or  a  familiar  quotation,  a 
little  changed  to  suit  his  purpose,  such  as  "  Did 
Ossian  hear  a  voice  ?  "  then,  after  exchanging  a  few 
words,  would  retreat  to  his  work. 

This  same  affectionateness  of  nature,  as  of  a  woman, 
was  warmly  manifested  towards  all  his  relatives.  His 
mother  was  tenderly  reverenced  and  loved,  and  he 
never  failed  to  minister  in  all  possible  ways  to  her 
comfort.  On  her  death,  though  not  unexpected,  since 
she  had  attained  the  advanced  age  of  more  than  eighty, 
he  wrote  to  his  brother,  "  I  am  stricken  with  this  news, 
as  if  I  had  not  known  it  was  so  inevitable  and  so  near. 
Dear,  dear  mother,  —  the  best  of  human  beings,  the 
humblest,  most  patient,  truest  to  every  duty  of  her 
lot.  My  heart  bleeds  that  I  could  not  have  seen  her 
again." 

He  was  very  fond  of  music,  especially  sacred 
music.  Every  Sunday  evening,  after  tea,  he  would 
gather  his  children  around  the  piano,  and  occa- 
sionally joining,  have  them  sing  to  him  the  old  psalm- 


CHAP.  XI.]  HOME-LIFE.  479 

tunes  and  chants.  In  his  last  illness,  when  at  Dor- 
chester, his  children  would  sing  to  him  almost  every 
night.  It  was  not  thought  of  till  he  had  been  there 
for  a  week  or  two,  but  one  evening  they  all  sang  at  his 
request,  and  he  slept  much  better  after  it  than  he 
had  done  for  a  long  time.  Every  night  after  that  the 
concert  was  repeated.  He  loved  martial,  stirring 
music,  too.  "  The  Marseillaise,"  and  "  God  save  the 
Emperor,"  and  all  national  airs,  were  favorites.  A 
Turkish  march  (so  called)  always  pleased  him,  be- 
cause, under  its  little  spell,  he  saw  "  The  Turkish 
moons  wandering  in  disarray."  It  always  troubled 
him  that  there  was  no  Italian  national  air.  His  imag- 
ination gave  life  to  whatever  he  read,  and  he  instinct- 
ively realized  the  pictures  of  poets  and  the  narratives 
of  historians.  Reading  Campbell's  "  Battle  of  the 
Baltic,"  he  remarked  on  the  line, 

•         "It  was  ten  of  April  morn  by  the  chime," 

how  vividly  it  brought  to  one's  mind  the  peaceful, 
calm  proximity  of  the  city, — the  water's  unruffled 
surface, — the  piers  crowded  with  anxious  faces  to 
witness  the  great  sea-fight,  as  the  sound  of  the  bells 
of  Copenhagen  came  over  the  waters. 

One  of  his  daughters  said  to  him,  that  "  The  Sol- 
dier's Dream  "  was  a  sad  thing  to  her,  owing  to  the 
uncertainty  whether  the  dream  was  ever  realized. 
He  said  his  understanding  of  it  was,  that  "  Thrice 
ere  the  morning  I  dreamt  it  again  "  signified  that  it 
came  to  pass,  referring  in  proof  to  some  popular  be- 
lief in  a  dream  thrice  dreamed  before  morning  coming 
true. 

He  often  read  aloud  passages  from  the  newspapers 


480  MEMOIR   OF  RUFUS   CHOATE.          [CHAP.  XL 

which  interested  him,  interspersing  them  with  remarks 
or  familiar  quotations.  At  the  time  of  Louis  Phi- 
lippe's flight,  he  read  the  account  at  table,  uttering 
after  every  few  sentences,  as  if  it  were  in  the  paper, 
"  What  shadows  we  are,  and  what  shadows  we  pur- 
sue !  "  So,  after  the  death  of  Nicholas  he  read  it  aloud, 
adding  in  the  same  tone  a  verse  of  the  Psalms  :  "  I 
have  said  ye  are  gods,  but  ye  shall  die  like  men  and 
perish  like  one  of  the  princes." 

He  had  more  than  a  feminine  sensitiveness  to  phys- 
ical suffering.  From  this,  some  presumed  to  doubt, 
his  courage,  though  I  know  not  with  what  reason. 
His  moral  courage,  certainly,  could  not  be  questioned. 
He  was  bold  enough  for  his  clients,  and  his  indepen- 
dence in  forming  and  maintaining  his  political  creed 
was  thought  by  some  of  his  friends  to  be  carried  even 
to  an  extreme. 

It  seemed  as  if  nobody  was  ever  so  gentle  and 
sweet-hearted  and  tender  of  others  as  he.  And  when 
we  consider  the  constant  provocations  of  his  profession, 

—  his  natural  excitability,  —  the  ardor  with  which  he 
threw  himself  into  a  case,  —  the  vigor  and  tenacity  of 
purpose  with  which  he  fought  his  battles,  —  as  well  as 
his  extreme  sensitiveness  to  sharp  and  unkind  words, 

—  it  seems  little  less  than  a  miracle.     "  He  lavished 
his  good  nature,"  it  was  truly  said,  "  upon  all  around 
him,  —  in  the  court  and  the  office, — upon  students, 
witnesses,  servants,  strangers."     He  was  so  reluctant 
to  inflict  pain  that  he  would  long  endure  an  annoy- 
ance, —  as  of  a  troublesome  and  pertinacious  visitor, 

—  or   put  himself  to  considerable  inconvenience  in 
escaping  from  it,  rather  than  to  wound  the  feelings  of 
another  by  a  suggestion. 


CHAP.  XL]  CONVERSATIONAL   POWER  481 

Though  sometimes  ruffled,  he 

"  Carried  anger  as  the  flint  bears  fire, 
Which,  much  enforced,  shows  a  hasty  spark, 
And  straight  is  cold  again." 

He  never  spoke  ill  of  the  absent,  nor  would  suffer 
others  to  do  so  in  his  presence.  He  was  affectionate, 
obliging,  desirous  to  make  every  one  about  him  happy, 
—  with  strong  sympathy  for  any  one  in  trouble. 
Hence  it  was  almost  impossible  for  him  to  refuse  a 
client  in  distress  who  strongly  desired  his  aid. 

Dr.  Adams,  in  his  Funeral  Address,  tells  a  charac- 
teristic little  anecdote.  "  He  had  not  walked  far,  one 
morning  a  few  years  ago,  he  said,  and  gave  as  a  reason, 
that  his  attention  was  taken  by  a  company  of  those 
large  creeping  things  which  lie  on  their  backs  in  the 
paths  as  soon  as  the  light  strikes  them.  '  But  of  what 
use  was  it  for  you  to  help  them  over  with  your  cane, 
knowing  that  they  would  become  supine  again  ? ' — 
*  I  gave  them  a  fair  start  in  life,'  he  said,  '  and  my  re- 
sponsibility was  at  an  end.'  He  probably  helped  to 
place  more  people  on  their  feet  than  otherwise  ;  and 
no  one  has  enjoyed  it  more  than  he." 

Though  friendly  with  all,  he  had  few  or  no  inti- 
mates. He  did  not,  as  has  been  said,  permit  himself  to 
indulge  freely  in  what  is  called  "  society,"  finding 
the  draught  too  much  upon  his  leisure  and  his 
strength  ;  yet  few  received  or  conferred  more  pleas- 
ure in  the  unrestrained  freedom  of  conversation. 

"  Mr.  Choate's  conversational  power,"  says  Chief 
Justice  Chapman,  "  was  scarcely  less  remarkable  than 
his  forensic  power.  It  was  by  no  means  limited  to 
the  subject  of  oratory.  Indeed,  so  far  as  my  acquaint- 

31 


482  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS   CHOATE.         [CHAP.  XI. 

ance  with  him  is  concerned,  he  never  made  that  a 
prominent  topic  of  conversation  ;  but  I  recollect  one 
of  his  conversations  on  eloquence.  He  was  talking  of 
Burke's  speeches,  of  which  he  was  known  to  be  a 
great  admirer,  and  remarked  to  a  friend  of  mine  who 
was  extolling  Burke  above  all  other  men,  that  he 
thought  on  the  whole  that  the  most  eloquent  and 
mellifluous  talk  that  was  ever  put  together  in  the  Eng- 
lish language  was  the  speech  of  Mr.  Standfast  in  the 
river.  I  went  home  and  read  the  speech  soon  after- 
wards, and  I  confess  I  appreciated  John  Bunyan's 
eloquence  as  I  never  had  done  before. 

"  But  it  never  occurred  to  me  that  Mr.  Choate  had 
any  conversational  hobby  of  any  kind.  He  was  inter- 
ested in  all  current  topics, — political,  social,  moral, 
or  religious,  —  and  there  seemed  to  be  nothing  in 
literature,  history,  philosophy,  or  jurisprudence,  that 
he  did  not  know ;  and  in  his  private  conversation  I 
always  thought  he  was  very  frank.  When  I  called 
on  him,  whether  alone  or  with  a  friend,  I  generally 
found  him  standing  at  his  desk,  pen  in  hand.  The 
moment  he  left  it,  he  turned  with  freshness  to  what- 
ever topic  came  up  ;  generally  throwing  himself  upon 
his  lounge,  and  entering  into  general  conversation,  or 
the  details  of  a  new  case,  as  if  it  were  a  recreation. 
He  was  remarkably  original  and  brilliant  in  his 
badinage  ;  and  I  have  thought  he  was  rather  fond  of 
saying  in  playfulness  what  he  would  not  have  said 
seriously,  and  what  it  would  be  unjust  towards  him  to 
repeat  —  though  he  never  transcended  the  limits  of 
delicacy  and  good  taste.  On  a  few  occasions  his  con- 
versation turned  on  religious  faith  and  doctrines. 
I  have  never  met  with  a  layman  whom  I  thought  to 


CHAP.  XI.]  HIS    HANDWRITING.  483 

be  more  familiar  with  theological  science  than  he. 
I  am  sure  he  understood  the  points  on  which  the 
debates  of  the  present  day  turn,  and  the  arguments 
by  which  controverted  doctrines  are  supported.  I 
think  he  was  a  thorough  believer  in  the  doctrines 
preached  by  his  pastor,  Rev.  Dr.  Adams.  He  was  an 
admirer  of  Edwards,  and  on  one  occasion  he  spoke 
familiarly  of  his  «  History  of  Redemption '  and  his 
4  Treatise  on  the  Will.'  He  had  at  his  tongue's  end 
a  refutation  of  Pantheism,  and  talked  freely  of  its 
logical  and  moral  bearings.  Yet,  while  he  seemed  to 
be  master  of  all  the  subtleties  of  polemic  debates,  he 
never  seemed  inclined  to  controversy ;  and  I  can 
readily  believe  that  he  would  gracefully  and  skilfully 
turn  the  subject  aside  when  in  conversation  with  a 
gentleman  holding  theological  opinions  widely  differ- 
ent from  his  own.  .  .  . 

"  Among  other  things  I  have  heard  him  express  a 
high  opinion  of  the  ecclesiastical  organization  and 
theological  system  of  the  old  Puritans,  as  having  con- 
tributed largely  to  stamp  upon  New  England  charac- 
ter the  best  of  its  peculiar  features." 

It  is  undoubtedly  true  that  among  his  many  studies 
he  had  not  neglected  a  some  what  critical  examination 
of  the  Holy  Scriptures.  He  was  quite  familiar  with 
the  arguments  for  the  genuineness  and  authenticity  of 
the  various  books,  even  to  the  minor  Epistles  of  Paul ; 
and  not  many  clergymen  probably  could  readily  bring 
up  such  an  array  of  learning  on  this  subject  as  he  had 
at  perfect  command. 

Mr.  Choate's  handwriting  was  famous  for  obscurity. 
It  was  impossible  for  one  not  familiar  with  it  to  deci- 
pher its  intricacies,  and  in  his  rapid  notes,  with  abbre- 


484  MEMOIR   OF    RUFUS   CHOATE.          [CHAP.  XI. 

viations  and  unfinished  words,  for  any  one  but  himself 
to  determine  the  meaning  ;  and  even  he,  when  the 
subject  was  forgotten,  sometimes  was  at  a  loss.  And 
yet,  when  closely  examined,  it  will  be  seen  not  to  be  a 
careless  or  stiff  or  angular  scrawl  ;  each  letter  is  gov- 
erned by  a  law  and  seems  striving  to  conform  to  the 
normal  type  ;  and  it  has  been  observed,  by  one  much 
accustomed  to  criticise  penmanship,  the  lines  have 
certain  flowing,  easy,  and  graceful  curves,  which  give 
a  kind  of  artistic  beauty. 

"  Mr.  Sprague  (now  Judge  Sprague)  and  I,"  wrote 
a  distinguished  member  of  the  Boston  bar,  Hon.  C.  G. 
Loring,  "  were  trying  a  case  against  Mr.  Choate. 
Coming  into  the  Court  one  morning  we  found  a 
sheet  of  paper  with  his  scrawls  upon  it,  and  I  tried 
to  read  it,  and  as  I  thought  made  it  out.  I  handed 
it  to  S.,  and  after  some  difficulty  he  read  it,  but 
quite  differently.  Mr.  C.  P.  Curtis  coming  along  I 
handed  it  to  him,  and  he  read  it,  but  unlike  both  of 
us.  Choate  entering,  I  said  to  him,  '  What  in  the 
world  is  this  which  we  can't  make  out  ?  '  '  Why,' 
said  he,  'what's  the  trouble?  That's  as  plain  as 
Roman  print ; '  and  proceeded  to  read  it  differently 
from  us  all." 

Mr.  Choate  was  a  little  more  than  six  feet  in  height ; 
his  frame  robust,  strong,  and  erect ;  his  walk  rapid, 
yet  easy  and  graceful,  and  with  a  force,  too,  that 
seemed  to  bear  onward  not  only  himself  but  all  about 
him  ;  his  head  was  covered  with  a  profusion  of  black 
curling  hair,  to  the  last  with  but  a  slight  sprinkle  of 
gray ;  his  eye  was  dark,  large,  and,  when  quiet, 
with  an  introverted,  meditative  look,  or  an  expression 
dreamy  and  rapt,  as  of  one  who  saw  afar  off  what  you 


CHAP.  XI.]  COURTESY.  485 

could  not  see  ; 1  his  smile  was  fascinating,  and  his 
whole  manner  marked  with  peculiar  and  inimitable 
grace.  -"  He  gave  you  a  chair,"  said  Rev.  Dr.  Adams 
in  his  Funeral  Address,  "  as  no  one  else  would  do  it. 
He  persuaded  you  at  his  table  to  receive  something 
from  him  in  a  way  that  nothing  so  gross  as  language 
can  describe.  He  treated  every  man  as  though  he 
were  a  gentleman ;  and  he  treated  every  gentleman 
almost  as  he  would  a  lady."  His  whole  appearance 
was  distinguished ;  and  though  he  always,  with  in- 
stinctive modesty,  avoided  notice,  he  never  failed  to 
attract  it  even  among  strangers. 

With  the  exception  of  the  time  when  he  suffered 
from  the  accident  to  his  knee,  he  was  never  seriously 
ill  ;  but  during  his  whole  life  he  was  subject  to  fre- 
quent and  severe  headaches,  which  for  the  time  quite 
disabled  him.  His  nervous  system  was  always  in  a 
state  of  excitement ;  his  brain  was  never  at  rest,  —  the 
perfervidum  ingenium  allowing  him  no  quiet.  Liberal 
of  work,  impatient  of  repose,  intense  in  action,  spar- 
ing of  recreation,  —  the  wonder  is  that  his  powers  had 
not  earlier  given  way,  perhaps  with  a  sudden  crash,  or 
with  a  longer,  more  wearisome,  more  mournful  descent 
to  the  dark  valley.  For  many  years  before  his  death, 
his  countenance  was  haggard,  and  the  lines  became 
deeper  and  deeper  with  age.  A  vague  rumor  began 
to  assume  consistency,  that  he  indulged  in  the  use  of 
opium.  The  conjecture  was  entirely  false.  His  phy- 
sicians have  given  me  their  direct  testimony  on  this 

1  When  aroused  or  interested,  his  eye  gleamed  and  was  very  pow- 
erful. A  woman,  who  had  some  reputation  as  a  fortune-teller,  once 
came  to  consult  him.  She  had  not  proceeded  far  in  her  story  before 
she  suddenly  broke  off  with  the  exclamation,  '•  Take  them  eyes  off  of 
me,  Mr.  Choate,  take  them  witch  eyes  off  of  me,  or  I  can't  go  on." 


486  MEMOIR  OF  KUFUS  CHOATE.         [CHAP.  XL 

point.  A  Dover's  powder  would  at  any  time  put  him 
to  sleep.  If  farther  proof  were  needed,  we  have  it  in 
his  never-ceasing  labors,  in  the  constant  command  of 
his  faculties,  early  and  late,  which  failed  only  with  his 
life,  and  in  his  own  positive  denial  of  the  truth  of 
the  injurious  report.  He  was  temperate,  and  almost 
abstemious  in  eating  and  drinking ;  rarely  indulging 
in  stimulants,  and  never  using  them  in  excess. 

During  the  latter  years  of  Mr.  Choate's  life,  his 
mind,  never  indifferent  to  religious  subjects,  was 
inclined  more  than  ever  to  the  consideration  of  man's 
nature  and  destiny,  his  moral  duties,  and  his  relations 
to  God.  He  had  an  implicit  faith  in  the  Christian 
religion  ;  and  felt  a  confidence  So  sure  in  that  form  of 
it  which  he  had  been  early  taught,  that  he  did  not 
care  to  disturb  his  belief  by  rash  and  objectless  specu- 
lation. He  regarded  the  ancient  symbols,  especially 
as  held  by  the  Fathers  of  New  England,  with  profound 
respect  and  acquiescence.  He  felt  the  need  of  some 
creed  or  formula  of  religious  belief  which  should  hold 
the  mind  firm  and  unwavering  amidst  the  vagaries  and 
fluctuations  of  human  opinions ;  and  a  serious  devia- 
tion from  the  old  and  established  ways  was  fraught 
with  he  knew  not  how  much  error. 

He  retained  also  an  instinctive  regard  for  the  old 
habits  and  practices  of  his  father's  house.  Though 
extremely  indulgent,  he  preferred  to  have  his  children 
at  home  and  quiet  on  a  Saturday  evening,  and  en- 
gaged in  thoughtful  and  serious  employments.  When 
prayers  were  read  in  the  family,  he  was  particular  that 
all  should  be  present.  Though  never  making  a  pub- 
Uc  profession  of  religious  faith,  he  often  expressed 
satisfaction  when  others  did  so,  and  showed  beyond 


CHAP.  XL]  HIS   RELIGIOUS   OPINIONS.  487 

mistake,  in  many  ways,  his  respect  and  veneration  for 
a  truly  religious  character.  His  religious  reading, 
not  only  of  speculative  and  philosophical,  but  of  prac- 
tical works,  was  quite  general,  and  for  many  of  his 
later  years,  constant  and  habitual.  Unlike  many 
men  of  eminence,  he  was  specially  averse  to  convers- 
ing about  himself.  There  was  a  sacred  chamber  in 
his  soul  which  he  opened  only  to  a  few  of  his  most 
intimate  friends,  and  hardly  to  them.  There  he  must 
be  safe  from  the  in  trusion,  even  of  those  who  might  have 
some  claim  to  enter.  In  personal  intercourse,  up  to  a 
certain  point,  he  seemed  without  reserve,  as  he  really 
was  ;  beyond  it,  the  most  astute  diplomatist  could  not 
be  more  impenetrable  or  elusive.  This  was  not  the 
result  of  calculation  or  of  will,  but  instinctive,  —  a 
part  of  his  idiosyncrasy.  It  was  surprising,  and 
almost  wonderful,  with  what  ease  and  certainty  he 
repelled  an  attempt  to  penetrate  the  sanctuary  of  his 
feelings,  and  yet  with  such  gentleness  that  the  in- 
truder at  first  hardly  perceived  it,  and  only  discov- 
ered on  reflection  that  he  had  not  succeeded.  He 
seldom  asked  advice,  or  depended  on  the  judgment  of 
others,  in  determining  his  own  course  of  action.  If 
this  was  true  with  relation  to  social  or  public  life,  it 
was  more  emphatically  true  of  his  religious  faith. 
His  personal  belief  and  hopes  you  must  infer  from 
what  he  was,  from  the  affections  and  sentiments 
which  he  habitually  expressed,  from  the  serious  tenor 
of  his  life,  and  from  his  rare  and  casual  conversations 
with  the  few  who  were  most  in  sympathy  with  him. 
To  those  with  whom  he  disagreed  he  was  always 
courteous  and  deferential,  and  might  sometimes  even 
appear  indifferent  as  to  theological  opinions ;  but  a 


488  MEMOIR  OF  RUFUS  CHOATE.  [CHAP.  XL 

discussion  with  such  was  impossible.  The  faith  of 
his  father  and  mother  was  his  to  the  last,  and  perhaps 
more  decidedly  at  the  last  than  ever  before. 

He  left  us  still  in  the  prime  and  vigor  of  his  days, 
at  an  age  when  many  retire  from  the  heated  strifes 
of  the  summer  of  life  to  a  serener  autumn.  But  it  is 
doubtful  whether  he  could  have  been  contented  with- 
out labor,  and  whether  he  would  not  of  necessity  have 
continued  at  his  post  till  mind  or  body  gave  way. 
He  was  spared  longer  than  many  whose  names  will 
always  be  cherished, — longer  than  James  Otis,  longer 
than  Fisher  Ames,  longer  than  Alexander  Hamilton, 
or  William  Pinkney,  or  Samuel  Dexter,  or  Justice 
Talfourd.  He  died  in  the  fulness  of  his  fame,  having 
won  the  universal  respect  and  love  of  his  contempora- 
ries. He  died  before  his  patriotic  fears  were  in  any 
measure  realized  ;  the  country  which  he  so  profoundly 
loved  still  united  ;  no  treason  consummated ;  no  crime 
against  the  fairest  hopes  of  the  world  actually  com- 
mitted ;  no  rash  counsels  carried  over  into  desperate 
act;  no  stripe  polluted  or  erased,  no  star  blotted  out, 
from  the  flag  which  to  the  last  was  his  joy  and  pride. 


APPENDIX. 


SINCE  the  first  edition  of  the  Life  of  Mr.  Choate  was  pub- 
lished, three  members  of  his  family,  each  of  whom  had 
rendered  some  special  service  in  the  preparation  of  it,  have 
passed  away.  First  of  these  was  Mrs.  Choate.  She  was 
the  daughter  of  the  Hon.  Mills  Olcott,  of  Hanover,  N.  H., 
for  many  years  a  prominent  member  of  the  New  Hampshire 
Bar,  a  gentleman  of  great  weight  of  character  and  influence, 
distinguished  for  intelligence,  sagacity,  and  wisdom  in  coun- 
sel, and  early  taking  a  prominent  part  in  enterprises  tending 
to  develop  the  resources  of  the  State.  He  was  remarkable 
also  for  richness  of  humor,  for  urbanity  and  gentle  courtesy, 
which  rendered  his  society  extremely  attractive.  His  ac- 
quaintance with  persons  of  distinction,  both  in  and  out  of  the 
State,  was  large,  and  his  house  was  the  seat  of  constant  and 
genial  hospitality. 

The  native  gentleness  and  refinement  of  Mrs.  Choate's 
mind,  encouraged  and  developed  under  the  influences  of  such 
a  home,  were  carried  with  her  through  life.  Her  uniform 
self-control,  serenity,  and  repose,  diffused  a  beautiful  quiet- 
ness and  peace  all  around  her,  and  served  sometimes  to  con- 
ceal, except  from  those  who  knew  her  intimately,  the  quick 
insight  and  sound  judgment  which  gave  weight  and  balance 
to  her  mind.  Added  to  this  was  a  transparent  sincerity  and 
singular  pureness  and  disinterestedness,  unaffected  by  change 
of  scene  or  circumstance,  by  prosperity  or  sorrow,  which  won 
the  confidence  and  respect  as  well  as  the  love  of  all  who  knew 


490  APPENDIX. 

her.  Underlying  all,  was  her  religious  faith  and  hope,  early 
assumed,  simple  and  undoubting  though  unobtrusive,  cover- 
ing her  with  a  singular  grace  and  beauty  of  character,  and 
perpetually  shedding  its  happy  influence  over  her  household. 
It  is  surprising  what  security  and  strength  such  a  character 
unconsciously  imparts  to  all  who  come  within  its  sphere. 
"  Always  firm,"  it  was  truly  said  of  her,  "always  serene,  she 
was  the  sheet-anchor  of  strength  and  hope  to  all  who  clung 
to  her  for  happiness  and  courage  through  life."  None  felt 
the  blessing  of  this  more  than  her  husband,  whose  immense 
nervous  force,  and  constant  and  harassing  labors  needed  the 
repose  of  such  a  home,  and  to  rest,  sometimes,  upon  the  quiet 
and  inwardly  sustained  strength  of  such  a  pure  spirit. 

She  died  suddenly,  after  a  brief  illness,  on  the  8th  of 
December,  1864. 

Rufus  Choate,  Jr.,  the  only  son,  for  whom  his  father  had 
such  hopes,  after  graduating  with  honor  at  Amherst  College, 
studied  the  law  and  entered  upon  its  practice  in  Boston.  On 
the  outbreak  of  the  war  he  enlisted  in  the  Massachusetts 
Second,  and  followed  its  fortunes,  till  a  painful  neuralgic 
affection,  from  which  he  never  fully  recovered,  compelled 
him  to  return  home.  In  the  earlier  skirmishes  and  battles, 
and  in  the  still  more  trying  marches  and  disheartening 
delays,  he  failed  in  no  duty.  He  was  in  the  fight  at  Cedar 
Mountain ;  and,  though  in  the  thickest  of  it,  was  one  of  the 
few  who  escaped  unharmed.  "  All  our  officers,"  says  a  cor- 
respondent of  the  "  New  York  Evening  Post,"  in  speaking 
of  this  battle,  "  behaved  nobly.  Those  who  ought  to  have 
stayed  away  wouldn't.  Goodwin,  Gary,  Choate,  and  Stephen 
Perkins  were  all  quite  ill,  but  would  not  stay  away  from 
the  fight.  Choate  is  the  only  one  of  the  four  not  killed. 
Goodwin  could  not  keep  up  with  the  regiment ;  but  I  saw 
him  toiling  up  the  hill  some  distance  behind,  with  the  assist- 
ance of  his  servant.  He  had  hardly  reached  the  front  when 
he  was  killed.  It  was  splendid  to  see  those  sick  fellows 


APPENDIX.  491 

walk  right  up  into  that  shower  of  bullets,  as  if  it  were  so 
much  rain. 

"  Yesterday  I  went  over  the  battle-field  with  the  General. 
The  first  man  I  recognized  was  Gary.  He  was  lying  on  his 
back,  with  his  head  on  a  piece  of  wood.  He  looked  calm 
and  peaceful,  as  if  he  were  merely  asleep.  His  face  was 
beautiful,  and  I  could  have  stood  and  looked  at  it  a  long 
while.  Next  we  found  Captain  Williams,  then  Goodwin, 
Abbott,  and  Perkins.  They  had  probably  been  killed  almost 
instantly,  while  Gary  lived  until  2  p.  M.  of  the  day  after  the 
fight.  His  first  sergeant  was  shot  in  the  leg,  and  lay  by  him 
all  the  time.  He  says  he  was  very  quiet,  spoke  little,  and 
didn't  seem  to  suffer.  We  found  a  dipper  of  water,  which 
some  rebel  soldier  had  brought.  They  took  every  thing 
from  him  after  he  died,  but  returned  a  ring  and  locket  with 
his  wife's  miniature  to  the  sergeant. 

"  All  these  five  were  superior  men.  Every  one  in  the 
regiment  was  their  friend.  It  was  a  sad  day  to  us  when 
they  were  brought  in  dead,  and  they  cannot  be  replaced.  It 
is  hard  to  believe  that  we  shall  never  see  them  again,  after 
having  been  continually  together  more  than  a  year.  I  don't 
remember  a  single  quarrel  of  any  importance  among  our 
officers  during  all  that  time." 

Mr.  Choate,  who  had  been  advanced  to  a  Captaincy,  was 
at  last  obliged  by  repeated  attacks  of  suffering,  which  entirely 
disabled  him,  to  resign  his  hardly  won  commission  and  leave 
the  army.  He  never  recovered  his  full  strength ;  but  after 
a  lingering  and  very  trying  illness,  died  on  the  loth  of 
January,  1866. 

Major  Joseph  M.  Bell  married  the  eldest  daughter  of  Mr. 
Choate,  and  was  for  many  years  his  partner  in  business.  He 
was  the  son  of  the  Hon.  Joseph  Bell,  for  a  long  time  one  of 
the  most  distinguished  lawyers  in  New  Hampshire,  and  for 
the  latter  part  of  his  life  a  resident  of  Boston.  Major  Bell 
was  graduated  with  honor  at  Dartmouth  College,  and  after- 


492  APPENDIX. 

wards  studied  his  profession  in  Boston.  Of  quite  a  different 
temperament  and  nature  from  Mr.  Choate,  it  was  well  said, 
that  "  his  thorough  mastery  of  the  law,  sure  discrimination, 
and  comprehensive  grasp  of  mind  were  of  the  utmost  value  to 
that  great  man  in  preparing  and  shaping  his  cases  before  the 
full  court,"  while  his  exact  method  and  habits  of  business 
were  of  great  service  in  keeping  the  complicated  affairs  of 
the  office  free  from  confusion,  and  moving  in  regular  order. 

Although  by  education  and  conviction  a  Whig,  he  had 
voted  for  Mr.  Buchanan ;  but  when  the  first  sound  of  the 
guns  from  Fort  Sumter  reached  the  North,  he  felt  that  the 
constitutional  doctrines  of  Webster  must  be  defended  at  all 
hazards,  and  he  at  once  prepared  to  enter  the  service. 
When  General  Butler  went  to  New  Orleans,  Mr.  Bell  was 
selected  as  a  member  of  bis  staff,  and  soon  came  to  occupy  a 
very  prominent  position.  His  knowledge  of  law,  his  power 
of  adapting  himself  to  new  and  unexpected  emergencies,  his 
absolute  integrity,  his  decision  of  character,  and  indepen- 
dence made  him  invaluable  as  a  counsellor  and  judicial  officer ; 
and  he  was  almost  immediately  promoted  to  the  responsible 
position  of  Provost  Judge,  which  then  included  the  most 
important  judicial  functions  of  the  State. 

"Before  the  war  the  administration  of  justice  in  New 
Orleans  had  cost  over  $100,000  a  year.  For  the  pay  of  a 
Major  of  Cavalry,  Mr.  Bell,  during  General  Butler's  stay 
there,  administered  justice,  civil  and  military,  with  such  ability 
and  fairness  that  he  left  with  the  highest  respect  of  the  ablest 
lawyers  of  the  city  who  had  practised  before  him.  When  he 
first  held  his  court,  they  asked  him,  to  test  his  quality,  under 
what  code  he  proposed  to  practise.  His  answer  was,  '  Mainly 
under  natural  law  and  general  orders.'  Questions  of  all 
kinds,  many  of  them  novel  and  of  large  importance,  especially 
those  affecting  the  rights  of  person  and  property  of  freedmen, 
rebels,  and  aliens,  he  met  with  that  vigor,  directness,  grasp, 
and  comprehensiveness  which  characterize  only  first-class 


APPENDIX.  493 

faculty.  His  mind  was  always  most  at  home  in  discussing 
complicated  cases  in  the  light  of  prime  governing  prin- 
ciples." 1 

When  General  Butler  was  transferred  to  Virginia,  Major 
Bell  went  with  him ;  and  it  was  while  presiding  over  an 
important  trial  at  Norfolk,  that  he  was  struck  with  a  partial 
paralysis.  He  was  able  after  a  while  to  return  home,  but  his 
health  was  shattered.  He  remained  an  invalid  till  his  death, 
Sept.  10,  1868. 


Hon.  David  Choate,  the  oldest  son  of  David  and  Miriam 
(Foster)  Choate,  was  born  in  Essex,  Nov.  29,  1796,  and 
died  there  Dec.  17,  1872,  at  the  age  of  seventy -six.  In 
many  respects  he  possessed  the  characteristics  of  his  brother 
Rufus.  "  In  his  early  years,"  to  quote  from  a  sketch  by 
Prof.  E.  P.  Crowell,  "  he  began  to  give  evidence  of  the  same 
marvellous  memory,  and  to  exhibit  the  same  playful  humor, 
the  same  imagination,  the  same  clearness  and  force  of  rea- 
soning, and  the  same  affluence  of  language,  that,  with  larger 
opportunities  for  culture,  gave  his  brilliant  brother  such 
eminence  in  a  wider  sphere."  During  his  whole  life,  he  was 
an  admirable  example  of  what  an  American  citizen  should 
be.  He  was  a  lover  of  sound  learning ;  directly  interested 
in  education ;  for  twenty-seven  years  the  master  of  a  school 
which  by  energy  and  personal  effort  he  raised  to  the  highest 
rank  ;  a  trustee  of  Dummer  Academy  for  ten  years ;  one  of 
the  founders  of  the  Essex  County  Teachers'  Association ;  an 
intelligent  and  active  member  of  the  County  Agricultural 
Society,  to  the  affairs  of  which  he  gave  much  attention ; 
early  a  justice  of  the  peace,  and  in  1858  appointed  a  trial 
justice,  in  which  last  capacity  many  important  questions 
came  before  him  for  decision,  his  steadfast  and  constant 

1  From  an  article  in  the  "  Boston  Advertiser,"  bearing  the  signa- 
ture (W.)  of  a  well-known  and  discriminating  writer. 


494  APPENDIX. 

influence  for  good  was  widely  felt  from  early  manhood  till 
his  honored  old  age.  As  a  magistrate,  his  decisions  were 
rarely  appealed  from,  and  still  more  rarely,  if  indeed  ever, 
was  one  of  his  decisions  reversed.  At  different  times  he 
was  a  member  of  both  Houses  of  the  Legislature,  always 
commanding  respect  for  intelligence  and  sound  judgment. 
His  rhetorical  ability  was  of  no  mean  order,  and  was  frequently 
put  to  use  in  the  service  of  the  town,  and  also  in  lectures 
and  addresses.  He  was  an  earnest  and  unfailing  supporter 
of  every  thing  conducive  of  the  public  welfare,  whether  in 
the  sphere  of  industrial  activities,  or  of  intelligence,  morality, 
and  virtue.  For  almost  fifty  years  an  office-bearer  in  the 
church,  for  about  forty  years  the  superintendent  of  its 
Sabbath  school,  he  was  always  a  careful  and  earnest  student 
of  the  truth.  He  was  cheerful  and  happy  in  a  long  life  of 
usefulness  and  beneficence,  and  died  beloved  and  greatly 
respected  by  all  who  knew  him.  "  The  place  of  his  burial 
is  marked  by  a  monument  erected  by  the  Sabbath  school  to 
which  he  had  given  so  large  a  part  of  his  life,  and  which 
sought  thereby  to  embody  in  visible  form  and  enduring 
material  their  mingled  reverence  and  affection  for  his 
memory." 


INDEX. 


ABBOTT,  ALFRED  A.,  Letter  to, 

370. 
ADAMS,  FAIRCHILD  v.,  Case  of, 

256. 

ADAMS,  J.  Q.,  446. 
ADAMS,  Ilev.  Dr.  N.,  360,  450. 
ALGER,  Ilev.  W.  K.,  442. 

Baltimore,  Whig  Convention  at, 

269. 
Bar  of  Essex,  41 ;  Meeting  of  the, 

376. 

Bar  of  Suffolk,  Meeting  of  the,  377. 
BRIGHT,  JESSE  I).,  Letter  to,  158. 
BRINLEY,  Mrs.,  Letter  to,  164. 
British  Poets  of  the  Wth  Century, 

Lecture  on  the,  309. 
BUCHANAN,  JAMES,  Letter  from, 

376. 
BUSH,  Rev.  GEORGE,  Letters  to, 

58,  59,  63,  109. 

Cherokees,  Mission  to  the,  61. 

CHOATE,  DAVID,  Father  of  Ruf  us 
Choate,  2. 

CHOATE,  DAVID,  Brother  of 
Ruf  us,  his  Account  of  Rufus's 
Boyhood,  5,  6. 

CHOATE,  MIRIAM,  Mother  of 
Rufus,  3. 

CHOATE,  RUFUS.  His  Birth,  1 ; 
Ancestry  and  Boyhood,  2 ;  Col- 
lege Life,  11 ;  Choice  of  a  Pro- 
fession, 15;  Is  Tutor  at  Dart- 
mouth College,  24  ;  Enters 
Law  School  at  Cambridge,  29 ; 
Goes  to  Washington  to  study 
with  Mr.  Wirt,  29;  Death 
of  his  Brother,  Washington 
Choate,  32 ;  Returns  to  Essex, 
32;  Testimony  of  Mr.  Wirt, 
32  ;  Admission  to  the  Bar,  33 ; 


Opens  an  Office  in  South  Dan- 
vers,  33 ;  Letter  to  Mr.  Marsh, 
34  ;  Marriage,  35 ;  Removal  to 
Salem,  37  ;  The  Essex  Bar,  39 ; 
Counsel  in  the  Knapp  Case, 
45 ;  His  Studies,  46 ;  Letter  to 
President  Marsh,  48 ;  Nomi- 
nated as  Representative  to 
Congress,  49 ;  Is  elected,  51 ; 
Letter  to  President  James 
Marsh,  53;  Enters  Congress, 
54 ;  Speeches  on  Revolutionary 
Pensions  and  on  the  Tariff,  55 ; 
Letter  to  Dr.  Andrew  Nichols, 
67 ;  Letters  to  Professor  George 
Bush,  68,  59 ;  Georgia  and  the 
Missions  to  the  Indians,  61 ; 
Letter  to  Professor  Bush,  62 ; 
Re-elected  to  Congress,  64 ; 
Speech  on  the  Removal  of  the 
Deposits,  64 ;  Resigns  his  Seat, 
66;  Removes  to  Boston,  66; 
Lectures  on  the  Waverley  Nov- 
els and  on  the  Romance  of  the 
Sea,  66 ;  Death  of  his  youngest 
Child,  68;  His  Professional 
Advancement,  71 ;  Letters  to 
Richard  S.  Storrs,  Jr.,  72,  73 ; 
Chosen  Senator  in  place  of  Mr. 
Webster,  74 ;  Death  of  General 
Harrison,  74 ;  Eulogy  on  Gen- 
eral Harrison,  74  ;  Speech  on 
the  McLeod  Case,  75 ;  The  Fis- 
cal Bank  Bill,76;  Collision  with 
Mr.  Clay,  76, 84 ;  Nomination  of 
Mr.  Everett  as  Minister  to  Eng- 
land, 85;  Letter  to  Mr.  Sumner, 
87;  Letters  to  his  Son,  88,  89; 
Speech  on  providing  Remedial 
Justice  in  the  United  States 
Courts,  90;  Letters  to  Mr. 
Sumner  and  Mr.  Hillard,  93, 94; 


496 


INDEX. 


The  North-Eastern  Boundary 
Question,  95 ;  Journal,  97 ;  Ad- 
dress in  New  York,  106 ;  Let- 
ter to  Professor  Bush,  109; 
Letters  to  Mr.  Sumner,  110, 
111,  112;  Letter  to  his  Daugh- 
ters, 11'2 ;  Debate  on  the  Tariff, 
120;  Reply  to  Mr.  McDuffle, 
124;  Congress  Adjourned,  130; 
Journal,  131 ;  Political  Contest 
of  1844,  141;  Speaks  for  Mr. 
Clay,  141 ;  Fragmentary  Jour- 
nal, 142;  Meeting  of  Congress, 
149;  Speech  against  the  An- 
nexation of  Texas,  150;  Ad- 
mission of  Iowa  and  Florida, 
152 ;  Establishment  of  the 
Smithsonian  Institution,  153; 
Library  Plan,  154;  Resigna- 
tion of  his  position  as  Re- 
gent, 158 ;  Letter  to  Hon. 
Jesse  D.  Bright,  158;  Letters 
to  Hon.  Charles  W.  Upham, 
160,  161;  Illness  and  Death 
of  Dr.  Sewall,  163;  Letter  to 
Mrs.  Francis  Brinley,  164 ;  Ad- 
dress before  the  Law  School  in 
Cambridge,  165;  Case  of  Rhode 
Island  Boundary,  173 ;  Defence 
of  Tirrell,174;  The  Smith  Will 
Case,  184 ;  Speaks  in  favor  of 
General  Taylor,  189 ;  Offer  of 
a  Professorship  in  the  Cam- 
bridge Law  School,  196 ;  Offer 
of  a  Seat  upon  the  Bench,  203  ; 
Lecture  on  the  Puritans,  203 ; 
The  Phillips'  Will  Case,  208; 
Fragmentary  Journal,  210 ; 
Change  of  Partnership,  215; 
Voyage  to  Europe,  215 ;  Let- 
ters to  Mrs.  Choate,  216,  217, 
218,  223 ;  Journal,  224 ;  Union 
Meetings,  250 ;  Address  on 
Washington,  250 ;  The  Case  of 
Fairchild  v.  Adams,  256 ;  Meth- 
odist Church  Case,  260;  Ad- 
dress before  the  Story  Associa- 
tion, 263;  Letters  to  his  Son, 
265,  266 ;  Webster  Meeting  in 
Faneuil  Hall,  268 ;  India  Rub- 
ber Case  Argued,  269;  Balti- 
more Convention,  269;  Address 
to  the  Phi-Beta  Kappa  Society 
in  Burlington,  Vt.,  279;  Jour- 
ney to  Quebec,  282 ;  Death  of 


Mr.  Webster,  283 ;  Letter  to  E. 
Jackson,  Esq.,  283;  Letter  to 
Harvey  Jewell,  Esq.,  284;  Let- 
ters to  Mrs.  Eames,  286,  290, 
291,  297,  299;  Offer  of  the 
Attorney  -  Generalship,  286  ; 
Convention  to  revise  the  Con- 
stitution of  Massachusetts,  287; 
Eulogy  on  Daniel  Webster  at 
Dartmouth  College,  288 ;  Let- 
ter to  Mr.  Everett,  291  ; 
Letters  to  his  Son,  292,  294, 
295 ;  Lette'rs  to  his  Daughter, 
289,  293,  295 ;  Address  at  the 
Dedication  of  the  Peabody  In- 
stitute at  Danvers,  296 ;  Letter 
to  Mr.  Everett,  296 ;  Accident 
and  Illness,  297 ;  Letter  to  Mr. 
Eames,  298 ;  Letter  to  the  Whig 
Convention  at  Worcester,  303; 
Speaks  at  Faneuil  Hall,  306; 
Letter  to  Rev.  Chandler  Rob- 
bins,  307 ;  Lecture  on  the  Early 
British  Poets  of  this  Century, 
309;  Letters  to  Mr.  Everett, 
308, 343, 344  ;  Sir  Walter  Scott, 
311;  Letter  to  Hon.  William 
M.  Evarts,  321 ;  Political  Cam- 
paign of  1856, 320 ;  Determines 
to  support  Mr.  Buchanan,  321 ; 
Letter  to  the  Whigs  of  Maine, 
321 ;  Address  at  Lowell,  328 ; 
Letter  to  J.  C.  Walsh,  331 ;  His 
Library,  334 ;  Lecture  on  the 
Eloquence  of  Revolutionary 
Periods,  335 ;  Defence  of  Mrs. 
Dalton,  335;  Lecture  on  Jef- 
ferson, Burr,  and  Hamilton, 
344 ;  Oration  before  the  Boston 
Democratic  Club,  July,  1858, 
352  ;  Letter  to  Hon.  George  T. 
Davis,  352;  Failing  Health, 
358 ;  Speech  at  the  Webster 
Festival,  1859,  359 ;  Address  at 
the  Essex  Street  Church,  359 ; 
His  last  Law  Case,  366  ;  Goes 
to  Dorchester,  367 ;  Decides  to 
go  to  Europe,  369 ;  Letter  to 
Hon.  Charles  Eames,  370 ;  Let- 
ter to  Hon.  A.  A.  Abbott,  370 ; 
Embarks  for  Europe,  370 ;  Ill- 
ness on  Board,  371 ;  Lands  at 
Halifax,  372 ;  Letter  from  Hon. 
George  S.  Hillard,  371;  Sud- 
den Death,  375;  Proceedings 


INDEX. 


497 


of  Public  Bodies  at  Halifax, 
375 ;  Meeting  of  the  Essex  and 
Suffolk  Bars,  376 ;  Speeches  of 
Hon.  C.  G.  Loring,  R.  H.  Dana, 
Jr.,  Judge  Curtis,  and  Judge 
Sprague,  377 ;  Meeting,  in  Fan- 
euil  Hall,  401 ;  Address  of  Mr. 
Everett, 401  ;  Letter  from  Hon. 
J.  H.  Clifford,  413;  Habits  in 
his  Office,  416 ;  Method  of 
Preparation  of  Cases,  419; 
Manner  of  Legal  Study,  417 ; 
Intercourse  with  the  Younger 
Members  of  the  Bar,  426 ;  Man- 
ner to  the  Jury,  427  ;  Man- 
ner to  the  Court,  428  ;  Charges 
and  Income,  430 ;  Vocabulary, 
434  ;  Wit  and  Humor,  435 ; 
Conversations  and  Anecdotes, 
441 ;  Eloquence,  447  ;  Power 
over  an  Audience,  449  ;  Exag- 
gerations, 450 ;  Style,  454  ;.  Let- 
ter from  Rev.  Joseph  Tracy, 
455  ;  Memory,  457  ;  Quota- 
tions, 469 ;  Fondness  for  Books, 
460 ;  Scholarship,  462  ;  Favor- 
ite Pursuits,  463 ;  Conversa- 
tion, 466  ;  Home  Life,  472 ; 
Fondness  for  Music,  478  ;  Gen- 
tleness, 480 ;  Conversational 
Power,  481  ;  Handwriting, 
483  ;  Appearance,  484  ;  Gene- 
ral Health,  485 ;  Feelings  upon 
Religious  Subjects,  486;  Death, 
488. 

CHOATE,  RUFUS,  Jr.,  Letters  to, 
88,  89,  265,  266,  292,  294,  295. 

CHOATE,  SARAH  B.,  Letters  to, 
289,  293,  295. 

CHOATE,  WASHINGTON,  Death 
of,  31. 

CLAY,  HENRY,  Mr.  Choate's-  col- 
lision with,  76,  84. 

CLIFFORD,  J.  H.,  Letter  from,  413. 

Constitution  of  Massachusetts,  Con- 
vention to  revise  the,  287. 

Convention  of  Whiqs  at  Baltimore, 
269. 

Convention  to  Revise  the  Constitution 
of  Massachusetts,  287. 

CROWNINSHIELD,  BENJAMIN  W., 
50. 

CURTIS,  B.  R.,  Address  of,  392. 

DALTON,  Mrs.,  Defence  of,  335. 


32 


DANA,  R.   H.,   Jr.,  Address   of, 

385. 

DAVIS,  G-EOROE  T.,  Letter  to,  352. 
Declaration  of  Independence,  The, 

Glittering  Generalities  of,  :J26. 
Democratic   Club,   Oration  before 

the,  352. 

EAMES,  CHARLES,  298,  370. 
EAMES,  Mrs.,  Letters  to,  286,  290, 

291,  297,  299. 
Eloquence  of  Revolutionary  Periods, 

335. 
Essex  Street   Church,  Address  at, 

359. 
EVARTS,  WILLIAM  M.,  Letter  to, 

321. 
EVERETT,  EDWARD,  Nomination 

of,  as  Minister  to  England,  85; 

Letters  to,  291,  296,  308,  343, 

344 ;   Address   of,  at    Faneuil 

Hall,  on    the    Death    of    Mr. 

Choate,  401. 

FAIRCHILD  v.  ADAM  s,  Case  of,  256. 
Faneuil  Hall,  Meeting  in,  401. 
Faneuil  Hall,  Speech  at,  306. 
Fiscal  Bank  Bill,  Speech  on  the, 

77. 
Florida,  Admission  of,  into   the 

Union,  152. 

HARDIN,  BENJAMIN,  65. 

HARRISON,  President,  Inaugura- 
tion and  Death  of,  74 ;  Eulogy 
on,  74. 

HILLARD,  GEORGE  S.,  Letter 
from,  370;  Letter  to,  94. 

HUNTINGTON,  AsAHEL,  Letter  of, 
38. 

Independence.     See  Declaration. 

India  Rubber  Case,  26;). 

Iowa,    Admission    of,    into    the 

Union,  152. 
Ipswich,  Address  at,  66. 

JACKSON,  E.,  Letter  to,  283. 
JEWELL,  HARVEY,  Letter  to,  284. 

KNAPP,  J.  F.,  Trial  of,  45. 
KOSSUTH,  279. 

Law  School  Cambridge,  Address 
delivered  before,  165 ;  Offer  of 
a  Professorship  in,  196. 


498 


INDEX. 


LORING,  C.  G.,  Address  of,  377. 
Lowell,  Speech  at,  328. 
LUST,  GEORGE,  381. 

MARSTERS,  Kev.  J.  M.,  464. 
MARSH.  Rev.  Dr.  JAMES,  Letters 

to,  34,  48,  53. 

McDuFFiE,  Mr.,  Answer  to,  124. 
McLEOD,  ALEXANDER,  Case  of, 

75. 

Neiv  England  Society  of  New  York, 

Address  before,  106. 
NICHOLS,  Dr.  ANDREW,  Letter  to, 

57. 
North-Eastern  Boundary   Question, 

95. 

OLCOTT  MILLS,  35. 

OLIVER,  STEPHEN,  Letter  from, 

49. 
Oreyon    Question,    The,    Speeches 

upon,  96,  114. 

Peabody  Institute,  Address  at  the 

Dedication  of,  296. 
Pensions,    Revolutionary,     Speech 

on,  55. 
PERLEY,   Chief  Justice,  Eulogy 

by,  18. 
Phi  Beta  Kappa    Society    of  the 

University  of  Vermont,  Address 

before  the,  279. 
Phillip's  W>ll  Case,  208. 
Poland,  Lecture  on,  66. 
Puritans  of  New  England,   their 

Character,  203. 

Remedial  Justice,  Speech  on  the 
providing  further,  in  the  Courts 
of  the  United  States,  90. 

Rhode  Island  Boundary  Case,  173. 

ROBBINS,  Rev.  CHANDLER,  Let- 
ter to,  307. 

SCOTT,  WALTER,  His  Genius,  311. 
Sea,  Romance  of  the,  Lecture  on, 
66. 


SEWALL,  Dr.,  Death  of,  163. 
SHAW,  Chief  Justice,  Letter  of, 

37. 
SMITH,   OLIVER,   Will  Case   of, 

184. 

Smithsonian  Institution,  The,  153. 
SPRAGUE,  Judge,  Address  of,  396. 
STORRS,  RICHARD  S.,  Jr.,  Letters 

to,  72,  73. 
Story  Association,  Address  before 

the,  263. 
SUMNER,    CHARLES,   Letters   to, 

87,  93,  110,  111,  112. 

Tariffs,   Speeches  upon  the,  55, 

120. 
TAYLOR,  General,  Election  of,  as 

President,  189,  196. 
Texas,  The  Annexation  of,  149. 
TICKNOR,  GEORGE,  442. 
TIRRELL,  ALBERT  J.,  Defence  of, 

174 

TRACY,  E.  C.,  Testimony  of,  13. 
TRACY,     Rev.    JOSEPH,    Letter 

from,  455. 
TYLER,  Vice-President,  assumes 

Duties  of  the  Presidency,  74. 

UPHAM,  CHARLES  W.,  Letters  to, 
160,  161. 

WALSH,  J.  C.,  Letter  to,  331. 

WASHINGTON,  Address  on,  250. 

WacerUy  Novels,  Lecture  on,  36, 
66. 

WEBSTER,  DANIEL,  Appointed 
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Whig  Convention  at  Baltimore,  269. 

Whigs  of  Maine,  Letter  to,  321. 

Whiijs,  Convention  of,  at  Worcester, 
302. 

WHIPPLE,  E.  P.,  444. 

WINSLOW,  Rev.  HUBBARD,  69 ; 
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WIRT,  Hon.  WILLIAM,  Testi- 
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